Chained Trickster Asides

Yes, this is a rewrite of a good chunk of Chapter 1 of Chained Trickster. I just feel like some people may not get why I had Sojiro not treat Arashi like the scum of the earth like he treats Akira in canon. And, yes, he's dead naming/misgendering Arashi, but he doesn't know yet.

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Sojiro glanced at the clock, his brow furrowing. It was already seven at night on the ninth. What was taking that girl so long? What a bother… He had taken her on after her parents had decided she was no longer welcome in their town. The police had threatened to just straight-up send her to juvie if she had nowhere else to go. Being the bleeding heart that he was, he had decided to take her in. Still… Something didn’t seem to quite add up. Why did she have a record of petty thievery? It sounded like it was all from grocery stores. Something was going on here that he didn’t understand. There was more to this story, but nobody had told him what it was. Finally, the bell on the door rang and he turned his attention to it. A very petite girl, not much taller than Futaba, walked in. Her clothes were incredibly threadbare and her hair was ratty and long. The blouse and skirt had obviously been patched innumerable times, but the girl’s skin could still be seen through them in places.  Something was wrong here. Very wrong. She approached the counter and sat down. “Um, Sakura-san?” the girl asked, her voice hushed and wavering. Her eyes were squinted beneath the thick frames of her almost too-large glasses. “Are you the kid I’m supposed to be taking care of? You’re awfully late, you know.” His exasperation came through a bit harsher than he intended. He couldn’t quite hide it. She should have been here hours ago. She was scheduled for an afternoon arrival according to the government. What had taken her seven hours to find LeBlanc? It was tucked away a bit, certainly, but seven hours to find? That shouldn’t have happened.  However, his heart broke when the girl’s shoulders went up instantly and her head went down. She hunched over, obviously flinching. Oh god, this was worse than he thought. She was obviously also quite skinny, but that reaction to just a little bit of exasperation… That reminded him far too much of how Futaba had acted when she’d first arrived in his care. He was going to have to really watch his tone around this girl, just like he had with Futaba. It was definitely going to be hard especially with the card in life this girl had been dealt… It really hurt to see someone obviously neglected react so negatively to just a little bit of harshness.  He sighed. “Look, kid, you can relax a bit; I’m sorry for the harsh tone; you were just supposed to be here hours ago. I was getting worried, you know?” He softened his tone immensely, not wanting to make her feel worse than he already had. He was extremely worried. He could see she had directions to LeBlanc printed out. Shouldn’t those have been clear enough? It felt like that should be enough to get her here to LeBlanc… What had stopped her.  But, once again, she squinted her eyes. “You’re gonna be staying here in the café. I have a house, but there are…reasons I can’t let you stay with me. Unfortunately, with it being as late as it is, we can’t really clean upstairs too much, not unless you wanna be at it half the night.” He paused. “…Kurusu Honoka, right?” “Yes.” Her voice was abrupt and the tone a bit acidic. Something was clearly wrong but he didn’t want to point it out. There was definitely far, far more to this story than anybody had told him. He’d have to keep an eye on this girl to see what was up with her. Clearly, she hadn’t had any good meals in a long time. Even Futaba wasn’t that skinny. That wasn’t a normal petite body weight; that was malnutrition. This situation was striking him as Futaba all over again. And if she was anything like Futaba, gaining her trust was going to be a nightmare. Hurt and abused kids didn’t warm up easily to adults. Adults were supposed to protect kids, but after suffering at the hands of adults, they often didn’t want to trust new guardians in their lives…and with good reason. He had a feeling that was going to be the case here. “I’ll probably clean up anyway…” Sojiro shook his head.  “I don’t want you doing that. We can work together tomorrow. It won't be ideal, but we can work together tomorrow. We’ll have to meet your teachers and get your ID tomorrow, but after that, we can come back and clean. And I’ll get you a new mattress tomorrow, too. How about that?” Honoka squinted again…or was she narrowing her eyes this time? It was a little hard to tell. Either way, he could tell she was studying him. Distrust rolled off her in waves. Yeah, this was going to be Futaba all over again, but in a much different way. “For tonight, though, how about I get you a good meal, and then you can sleep in one of the booths? I know it’s not ideal, but it’d be better than sleeping in a dusty attic.” He frowned as something hit him. “Where are all your belongings, though? The court said they’d arrive before you in the mail.” Honoka looked at the bag on the stool next to her. “…That’s all I have.” A small backpack? Even that thing looked like it should’ve been burned a long time ago. It was just as threadbare as the patchy blouse and skirt she wore. It’d clearly been patched innumerable times. It was barely holding together. What had happened to this girl? Why were her only belongings the clothes on her back and an old, decrepit backpack? He doubted the outfits in the backpack were honestly any better. He could see clothes, but they likely wouldn’t be any better. This poor girl… He was going to have to fight to gain her trust. He would just have to let his actions speak for themselves. Hopefully, in time, she would come to trust him like Futaba had. But he could tell she actively distrusted him. He wished things were different, but he hadn’t had any hand in this. He was just her new guardian… “I’ll get you some clothes tomorrow as well. And no uniforms either, I’m assuming?” he asked. Honoka shook her head. “No money. The government only paid for me to get here.” So no breakfast or lunch on the train, huh? She had to be starving by this point. Then again, it looked like she’d been starving for much longer than just a few weeks. This was prolonged malnutrition. Her eyes were a bit sunken in and her cheeks were gaunt. She was clearly suffering. “All right then; we’ll have to get you some uniforms tomorrow as well.” Sojiro placed a plate in front of her. “Eat up. I’ll make sure you get enough everyday. If you know how to cook and want to use some ingredients, just open the fridge.” He pulled out a notebook and pen. “Just write down what you use if you do, that way I know what I’ll need to buy when I go out shopping again. But I definitely won’t let you go without.” Once again, he sensed distrust roll off of Honoka in waves, but she turned her attention to the plate. She fell silent while she ate. He could tell she was holding back and trying to be polite with how she ate. Only about a third of the plate got eaten. It had only been a normal portion size, but it definitely convinced him that Honoka physically could not take in a lot of food right now. “So you mentioned you couldn’t see. Why is that? You have glasses.” He couldn’t help but worry about it. She kept squinting to try to look at him. They were only about four to five feet apart so it wasn’t like they were that far… But if she couldn’t see that far, then something was really wrong. It was starting to make sense why she had taken so long to get to LeBlanc. She could not see the signs from a distance. She had probably taken more than a few wrong turns and gotten all sorts of turned around. The directions would’ve been useless after a certain point. Why didn’t she use her phone…? Why had she printed out directions to begin with? That just now hit him as another thing that was very off… Pretty much all kids nowadays had smartphones. Futaba definitely did. Honoka took her glasses off. “I might as well not have them… I legitimately can’t see unless it’s like two feet from my face.” That certainly didn’t send a chill down his spine. Why had her parents not kept up on her prescription? If she had grown so much that her prescription had changed as much as it had…what was wrong? He wanted to get to the bottom of this, but he severely doubted Honoka’s parents would forfeit any information. They had been beyond enraged when they had called him to take Honoka in. They had kept the conversation as short and sweet as possible. He probably wouldn’t get anything out of them, unfortunately. “So it’s been a long time since you’ve been to the optometrist, huh?” Honoka nodded. “I’ll see about getting you in as quickly as possible, but it might be a little while until you get your new glasses. Or would you prefer contacts?” Might as well see if he had any sort of preference. He’d have to call the optometrist on Monday and see about it. Honoka frowned. “Aren’t contacts more expensive?” “Well, if you’d have a preference, I wouldn’t mind getting them for you as long as you want them. Also…when was the last time you got a haircut? Yours is pretty long.” Honoka looked down at her long hair. It was ratty, dull, and obviously hadn’t been properly taken care of. It went well past her shoulders. “…Do you even have shampoo?” She shook her head, his heart breaking all over again. No necessities, not even shampoo… Rage boiled in his heart for her. How could anybody treat their own child like this? Clearly, she had been beyond neglected by those that should’ve taken the best care of her possible. How…? Why…? Why wouldn’t parents take care of their own kids? He wanted to strangle them even though he didn’t know the whole story. He severely doubted she’d be going back to them when her probation was over. Sojiro sighed. “We’ll have to do a pretty long shopping trip tomorrow.” He waved his hand. “Anyway, it’s getting late and I need to head home. Do you think you can clean up the plate and dishes?” “Yeah.” He hoped giving the kid a small chore wouldn’t kill their relationship. He was just pretty certain Futaba would be getting antsy and he didn’t want to leave her waiting too terribly long. She would know why he wasn’t home yet with this conversation. He had put up cameras and microphones in the café for her to keep an eye on him under the agreement she didn’t record anything. He didn’t know if she actually stayed true to that, but he would trust that she wouldn’t. It was definitely the honor system here, but he really did trust her. With that done, he headed out of the café and back to the house to check on Futaba.