medicine man, i'll lay my head in your hands; medicine man, you will clear my mind

[willowed]

Shrugging off her heavy winter coat, Nuriko stands in the middle of the back room to Urahara Kisuke's cat café, giving the nearest feline a suspicious look as it lingers a few paces away. To the side, a seat has been prepared with treats and sweets for Robin, who seems to be examining the contents of his plate with interest, though Nuriko suspects that he's still keeping his ears trained on herself and the shopkeeper, as per his agreement. His presence relaxes Nuriko, allowing her to follow Urahara's steps as he enters the room with careful confidence.

She has very little idea what to expect, but budgeted for the time just in case. As far as Rin knows, she's out running errands all night for the restaurant, only available by phone, and likely only to return until morning.

"So... it feels to me like there are two options. Either I stay in my body, which will let you examine whether or not it acts and behaves like a regular human body, or I step outside of it so that you can see the stone it will revert to," Nuriko says, folding her coat over her arm and resting her hands in front of her person. "Is there something I'm forgetting? What do you want me to do first."

Her hands tighten against the folds of her coat, and Nuriko bites down on her lower lip, looking slightly apprehensive.

Comments

[vivememorleti]

Enterting with little more than the slide of a door and the flutter of his loose robe, Kisuke looks between the two, eyeing first the individual with the sweet tooth and the curly hair whom Nuriko had identified as boss -- and finding him little threat, or little reason to make him threaten -- he focuses his attentions on Nuriko.

He dips his head low again, although he'd already done so more than once in deference to her good grace for showing up at all.

"I want you to answer some questions before I look at anything. Please. Rather than examining how that body of yours works and in what detail, why don't you just tell me in your own words? No need to go into gross detail. I've no intention of taking away your dignity. So your own words. Those will do nicely. And please, relax. Can I get you anything for your nerves?"

Kisuke folds a hand across his bared chest. She's so nervous she's practically making him nervous. He can't blame her. But it doesn't make this easier for either of them.

[willowed]

"If you think that's enough," Nuriko says with some doubt and hesitation, brow furrowing as she watches Urahara bow his head time and time again in front of her. Something about the deference only makes her more nervous, even though she realizes it's intended to do the opposite. "I don't know many technical details behind this body, to be honest. I just use it. I wouldn't know how to start learning about it without Taiitsukun here."

Sighing, Nuriko sinks to a seat by the long table in the middle of the room, kneeling neatly and glancing up to meet Urahara's gaze.

"I'll take tea, if you have it," she says, carefully putting her coat off to the side. "My body actually borrows the use of an aide named Nyan Nyan. Nyan Nyan is able to duplicate her body and, when dormant, sleeps in the form of a light pink orb or stone that floats around Taiitsukun's home. I'm not sure what Nyan Nyan really is, but she never seems to age, so maybe she was created by Taiitsukun. Or maybe she's a goddess of some sort. She hasn't talked to me since getting here, so basically I can step into her stone to adopt my body as it was before I died, or I can float around as a ghost with the stone lying around at my house."

[vivememorleti]

"So, that's all good information," Kisuke says, spreading his hands before holding up a finger to Nuriko that says 'wait,' and disappearing into the kitchen at the other corner of the shop's back. He returns, not with one of the cafe's cups, but with a proper set for tea service - a Japanese one - which he sets down on the table between them all, as gently as possible. The earthen teapot is filled already with boiled water - he may have used a shortcut - and decorated lovingly with swimming fish.

It's very apparent that he'd been prepared for these types of conversations, and meetings, from inception.

His eyes stray to the curly-haired man when he gives a suspicious snort, but he focuses quickly back on Nuriko as his hands work quickly to put everything together, so that she can have her warm drink.

"Taiitsukun is whom? More importantly, do you have any complaints about how it all functions? I want to hear those."

[willowed]

Nuriko's gaze quickly darts to the side at the sound of Robin's snort, her expression tense until Robin waves her back to the conversation at hand. She gives the tea set a thoughtful look. It's similar to, but not quite in the style of the sets she's familiar with from home.

"Taiitsukun is the old sage who lives on top of Mount Taikyouku. Or that's what she would have everyone believe. But those of us who have deceased know her as someone different — as the Jade Emperor," Nuriko explains, her chin raising as she shares the secret, her expression sharp and almost imperious. There is a pride that comes with talking about her world. However difficult it'd been for Miaka to adjust at the time, Nuriko likes where she hails from.

There's a beauty in it that she hasn't seen in Darrow, or in Miaka's country.

"The Jade Emperor being, as I suspect you know, the ruler of the heavens. The body Taiitsukun lent to me works fine. It's... it's exactly the same as the body I was born in, so if there are any complaints, it's more what the gods chose to give me than the functionality of this body."

[vivememorleti]

"I'm familiar with those stories," Kisuke says, not dismissively, but slowly, and acknowledging. The situation is very similar to what Kisuke knows is true of Soul Society. Far above the Court of Pure Souls was the Zero Division, guarding the Spirit King. He lifts his eyes to briefly check the clock on the wall, listening to it tick over the sound of the other people in the room. Not time to pour the tea quite yet.

He smiles again, broadly. "What is it that the fickle gods chose to give you then? You seem like a grateful young lady; graceful, as well. I wonder what it is that's not to your liking."

[willowed]

Something about Kisuke's smile reminds Nuriko of the very other man seated in the room, broad and opportunistic. Like a salesman, if with a softer touch than Robin's wide smiles baring too many teeth. Nuriko takes a deep breath. It might not be a bad thing, she tells herself, to listen to what a man has to say regarding the shortcomings of her skin.

She raises a hand in front of her chest before pressing down against the various frills and distractions, pressing down to the flat of her sternum.

"No chest. No hips. And a little bit extra in between my legs," she says, slightly crude with a mischievous glint in her eye. "You're right, though. I'm a graceful young lady who is appreciative of what she has. I'm grateful that I have a body. That doesn't mean that I'm different than any other woman, able to acknowledge what she'd change."

[vivememorleti]

Expression betraying no change, Kisuke tilts his head back slightly as he stares across at Nuriko, the kind lighting of the room finally spilling under the brim of his hat to illuminate his eyes. They aren't unkind, but neither are they overly sympathetic. She's not moping over her situation; he won't either. He's heard plenty of sob stories in his time, and dwelling too much on what there is to be sorry for has never helped any of them. She's found herself a chance to change her life in a significant way, if she chooses that route.

Lifting the teapot gently, hands moving with practiced grace, he pours two squat cups full of the bright green tea, before placing one in front of either of his guests.

"So it's something that you would change, if you had the option to do so? And if I told you that the option could be opened to you?"

[willowed]

"You make it sound so simple," she replies, her tone almost one of exaggerated praise. Breathing a deep exhale, Nuriko bows her head in thanks for the tea, pulling it gently over to herself and wondering if there's a certain way to hold the cup and consume the tea. There probably is. With someone who does business, there's always a way to put across a good impression, and a way to ruin it.

She'll wait a little while longer, she decides, to see if either of the men take a first sip.

"If the choice is only between a male body and a female body, keep the face, complexion, body type, everything else, without price or drawback or risk of failure... yes," she says confidently. She'd asked Miaka for the same once, and would ask her again, if perhaps less given what she'd seen of Suzaku.

Wishes don't come without a price.

"But people don't do that kind of favor for a woman without a reason. And I'm not an island. If you're offering the option, my first reaction is that I don't trust you enough right now. As thankful as I am for the tea."

[vivememorleti]

"Just drink it," Kisuke advises her, with a mildly nervous laugh, as the curly-haired man at his other shoulder gives a deep snort. It doesn't sound like a particularly amused one. "I'm not the sort of person who stands on ceremony. Just the sort of person who can appreciate it."

Kisuke lifts his hands to wave them at her, before pouring himself his own glass to drink. While he appreciates her distrust of him fully, even thinks he deserves it, he wants to be straight with her. "My only price is a price. It's not going to be a cheap one. But it's not going to be out of your means. Certainly, less expensive than owning a car or something like that. I don't sell my products for much of a profit, but I need to make some kind of a return. So that I can buy more supplies. So that I can continue doing what I really love to do. Everything runs on money, Nuriko-san. Even death."

[willowed]

"Not everything runs on money," Nuriko counters, frowning at the very thought. It isn't even the idea of paying for such a body that grates — certainly, she should owe him for the work and materials, and it will make her feel slightly better about accepting the body. But money is hardly a centerpiece of her own world, and merely a facilitator. There were plenty of times when she'd gotten what she needed back home without any such exchange.

It's just that the community here is different.

"I'm only a waitress," she tells him, lifting her cup and taking a sip. The taste is subtly bitter, warm and pleasant. "A waitress with a good job at a fantastic restaurant, but still only a waitress. 'Not out of my means' is still something that might affect the way I live life with my friends. I'll talk to them. See how they feel. But, let me ask you, Kisuke."

"How many bodies have you sold here so far?"

[vivememorleti]

"The times, they are a-changing," he said, amusing himself with the familiar song lyric.

Nuriko's boss, Goodfellow-san as he'd been instructed, had finally chosen to speak up, and was fixing Kisuke with a look of determined assessment. Based on the clothes the man was wearing, far different than Kisuke's own, Kisuke had an idea that he was a person who understood the impression money could make on life.

It could make a difference in death, too. From inherited debts, to funeral costs, and beyond that. And now, Kisuke, who was dead, needed a steady influx of it. Both to afford the food that he needed to eat, and the heat to keep warm, but also for research. He wanted a way out of here -- more than Kuchiki Rukia did, and he was willing to want what she wanted. Research was as necessary, now, as food and clean water.

"You're going to be negotiating a price not with Nuriko, but with me. Believe me. I know that everything has its price. I also know what the fair price of everything is. Nuriko brought me for a reason. Let it be that."

Kisuke gave a nod; fair enough. He sensed a personality a bit like a plow, but he'd dealt with enough of those in the last few decades to be unintimidated. "I haven't sold any bodies here. Not yet. But I've created a few model versions, and I do maintenance work They need to be checked out by someone knowledgable the same as other bodies. Although I'm not technically a doctor. Just a shinigami."

[willowed]

Nuriko glances over at Robin, suddenly sitting straighter and offering his input, and she can't help the small smile that stretches across her lips, finding the help unexpected. Of course, she brought him along for a reason, as he pointed out; she simply didn't realize that he would be looking out for her even financially.

Of course, when she gets a better look at his expression, she can only imagine that part of the reason for his help is the love of negotiation. He's a businessman, after all.

"I have the best boss, don't I?" Nuriko says, smiling more broadly as she turns back to Kisuke, her hands still wrapped around the cup of tea. "I do want to point out that making me your first guinea pig for these bodies here in Darrow is risky, no? I can't imagine you've had as easy of a time finding your materials here."

Taking another sip of the tea, Nuriko inhales deeply, then settles a calmer gaze on Kisuke. "What is it that you most want out of this city, Kisuke?"

[vivememorleti]

"You're damn right," Robin says, folding his arms over his chest in apparent pleasure, before giving the floor totally back to Nuriko. Kisuke doesn't hold the exchange against either of them. Even if they were treating him, outright, like an enemy, he truthfully wouldn't be offended.

His goal isn't, after all, to be particularly well-liked, or well-recieved, but to do the work that he wants to do, with relative ease, in relative peace.

All he's ever wanted, really.

He drinks from his own cup and clears his throat. "I don't want much. I just want it to sit quietly while I take as many opportunities from it that it allows me to, and then I want it to let me leave. In the interim, I suppose that I want to be a decent neighbor to the individuals who have found themselves here with me. I'm not complicated. I really ... am not."

[willowed]

Nuriko offers Robin a fast smile, nose wrinkled in amusement. Maybe it's obnoxious, but Nuriko has always found it easier to deal with the obnoxious people over the elegant ones. Even Hotohori, in his own way, had been unbearable at times regarding certain topics. His beauty, for one. Finding love with Miaka, for another.

Not that she ever blames him for the latter.

But before she turns her gaze back to Kisuke, Nuriko works on draining the rest of the cup, giving it a thoughtful turn in her fingers as she lowers it again. It was good tea. Bitter and strong, almost thoughtful.

"I find it interesting, Kisuke, that you put together a look and behavior that make you seem like that complicated, eccentric shop owner," she says, tilting her head and gazing neutrally at him. "And now you're telling me that you're not complicated. But what you do... I fail to see how that isn't complicated. How it can be done by someone who isn't complicated."

[vivememorleti]

Kisuke carefully slides a plate with a small slice of a dainty little cake toward Robin, who gives the food an assessing glance before accepting it. Kisuke isn't sure it will pacify him, but he'd liked the first piece, and eating it will at least give Robin Goodfellow something else to do with his mouth.

"Nuriko," he says, giving her a smile as sweet just as sweet as the confection. "I appreciate that you think so highly of me, but I'm only telling you what I think is the truth. I just want to help people. Whatever else is just the ghost of the goals of a man with something to prove, but that book's been closed. Old habits are just the hardest to break."

Finishing his drink, he stands.

"I can offer you a test-drive. Free of charge."

[willowed]

For the moment, Robin seems placated, and Nuriko shifts in her seat, sitting further up as she listens to Kisuke's reasons for... well, for being who he is. For carrying himself the way he does. And breaking old habits feels like one of the most plausible answers — even if Nuriko's immediate impulse is to ask exactly what it is he's trying to break.

She raises her cup, draining the rest of the tea and suppressing the slight shudder in her shoulders. It's lukewarm.

"Okay," she says, quick to take up the offer before it slips through her fingers. Because it would be silly not to consider. Because she hasn't met anyone else in the city yet who can give her the opportunity. "A test drive. Long..." Nuriko pauses in thought. "...long enough for me to need to use the bathroom and wake up after a nap. How you feel when you wake up in the morning is important. And for this problem, being comfortable going when you need to."

There are other things, Nuriko thinks, that are important for this decision. But all of those matters are larger than the physical comfort.

[goodfella]

"Hai," Kisuke says, agreeing to her terms with a soft bow of his head and moving toward the door to the back office.

"Nuriko-san, Nuriko-san's employer, I'll be back in a minute. I want to draw up some papers. To protect you, Nuriko-san, as much as myself. Both of us have worthy interests, after all. I'll be back in just a minute. Please do make yourselves at home in the meanwhile. It won't take long," he assures again, before disappearing through the doorway with the soft sound of rustling fabric.

Robin sits up more straight immediately, tracking after the disappearing robes with green eyes narrowed in cat-like suspicion. For all that Robin's eyes differentiate, the other man might as well be an ax-murderer.

"I don't really trust spirits," Robin says, before turning back on Nuriko with a look of surprise. "No offense intended. You're a bit different. What I mean is, I don't trust kami as far as I can throw them Nushi back at home was one thing, but, you know .. you can never tell what motivates them. In that regard, I'd rather deal with another puck."

[willowed]

"It's weird, isn't it?" Nuriko asks, eyes wide and blinking for a few seconds before she turns to Robin, pointing in the direction that Kisuke's wandered off. "Drawing up papers? A contract? Usually those things take longer to write up than just — he must have been drafting it for a while, no?"

Nose screwed up in wariness, Nuriko huffs a disgruntled sigh in Kisuke's direction, crossing her arms over her chest. Getting a woman's body now sounds like it's far, far too much to expect someone to just give her.

"I mean, I'm not that smart. I'm really not. What does he expect me to do, screw him over somehow? I'm not like that," protests Nuriko, her cheeks flushing. "That's how I'm different, too. I might be a spirit, technically, but I was human and I lived as a human and I still live as a human. Robin, what do you think I should do?"

[goodfella]

"Probably since the moment he laid eyes on you, even if it was only in his head," Robin says, honest and without judgment, though he narrows his eyes to slits a second later as he stares at the empty doorway, before turning his attention back to Nuriko.

If he were in that position, Robin would have done the same. But Robin isn't, and Nuriko is one of his fine employees.

"I know that you're different," Robin assures her. "Which is why I want to read that contract over. I think you should sign it. But only after I've read it. If the wording is too one-sided, we can negotiate. But those things can protect you, just as much as they can protect the other party. If they're written properly. Provided that person is someone who honors such things."

Robin can't tell one way or the other, which he is not planning on actually admitting. "Darrow is becoming a complicated place," doesn't entirely like Darrow, but he doesn't entirely dislike it, either.

[willowed]

"I guess I'm not really used to people upholding their end of a contract," Nuriko says quietly, almost a growl, as she thinks back on the way between Konan and Kutou. It isn't like there weren't any opportunities to settle things peacefully. Not like Hotohori hadn't tried. Instead, it was the greed of man that constantly pushed him over the previously drawn lines, always seeking more power.

She drops her head in her hands briefly, closing her eyes with a snort.

"Darrow has always been complicated, hasn't it? I don't even know how to bring this up to Rin," mutters Nuriko with a heavy sigh. "Do all non-humans view us this way? Like pawns for their personal use?"

[goodfella]

"Not all of them," Robin replies, with a laugh at the very idea. To start with, some of them just weren't clever enough. 'Non-human' meant just what it said on the tin, in Robin's experience. Something that just wasn't human. It didn't exclude much else.

"Some of them. For the rest, I'd say, you're more like any other thing out there. Either that's slow and small-toothed prey, or a competitor for territory, or a relationship far more delicate than either of those, it all depends on what you're working with. And how they've decided to treat the creatures around them. I can't even say that I wasn't the same. In the past That I didn't treat others like pawns for my amusement. But I've got other priorities now."

[willowed]

Nuriko pouts at once when Robin laughs, bright and delighted, not unlike the ringing of bells as his eyes shine with merriment. It's the kind of laugh that makes her feel a little bit condescended — but if there's anyone who's probably earned the right to be that to her, it's Robin. Robin, who's lived an eternity and then some.

"I don't know if any of those things feel very accurate to how I feel under Kisuke's watch. Maybe prey is the closest. But I think it's in his best interest to... make sure that I survive and enjoy this test drive he's offering me," she says quietly. "Then again, I can't read his eyes. Just like I can't read yours. I can't even imagine what would change the priorities of someone who's lived and seen so much. Or maybe I'm putting you on too high of a pedestal."

[goodfella]

At the comment that she can't read his eyes, Robin's face quiets, and he stares across at her with quixotic puzzlement. He doesn't always particularly relish what sets him apart.

"Believe me when I say that this is the first and possibly last time these words will ever leave my mouth, Nuriko, but you shouldn't put me on a pedestal at all. It isn't the years that mean as much as what you do with them. Anyway, realistically, no matter what kind of man he is, it's true enough that I can't find any reason that he would benefit from hurting you with this. If there isn't a benefit, there isn't a motivation."

[willowed]

"If you're able to help out a girl like me after only knowing her for a few months, I imagine that at some point, you must have stuck your neck out there. You must have done something good with some of those years," concludes Nuriko, staring contemplatively. For all the good Robin may have done, she wouldn't doubt if he did just as much harm. Maybe more.

But to someone with an eternity ahead of them, shouldn't forgiveness eventually enter the picture?

Nuriko leans forward and presses a kiss to Robin's temple. "I'm less worried about him hurting me. More worried about what this is a first step towards. But I trust your judgment, Robin. Don't let me down."

[goodfella]

"Now you're giving me too much credit," Robin cautions. But the press of warm lips softens his demeanor again, and he gives a soft, wary smile and a huff of exasperation under his breath. She is, honestly, too much.

"Well, there is no way to know without taking a step. That's all I'm betting on. But I won't let you down, sweetheart. Winning bets have got me this far, after all."