Chihiro's Training Montage

[petabytes]

Who: Chihiro Fujisaki, seperately with Dean Winchester, D'Artagnan, and Shannon Beiste - possibly others; I'm open to other characters dropping in the threads, so long as everyone else is!
Where: Various locations
When: At various points within the week
Rating: PG, PG-13 at most.
Summary: Through the course of her personal mission to become stronger, Chihiro seeks the help of various residents who had offered to help her.


They're probably busy. I don't want to be a bother. Maybe it's hopeless, I shouldn't waste their time.

These thoughts and more had often swirled in Chihiro Fujisaki's head whenever she thought back to all of the people who offered to train her to defend herself and strengthen her body. Weighing in at less than 100 pounds and standing less than five feet tall didn't leave Chihiro with a lot of room to grow, and it was often easier to simply look at herself for a few good seconds and give up.

As the mansion's cruel tricks chipped away at her, however, her behavior began to change. Rather than being discouraged, Chihiro found her resolve. She could either give up, or bite the bullet and strengthen herself - and she had too many good friends counting on her to stand up for herself to take the easy way out any longer.

"...Alter Ego... if anyone asks for me for the next few hours... tell them I'm not available. I'll be back, all right?"

Comments

[petabytes]

Chihiro fumbles the apron a bit when she catches it. It takes her a moment to realize what it is, but once she does, she looks... excited. Inordinately excited. "Ah! An apron... I get to wear... oh! Oh, I'm sorry, um... yes, tomatoes, cutting them... I can do that..."

Wasting no time in donning the apron, she retrieves a tomato and begins cutting it into thin slices, slowly and methodically. "I... I'm sorry, but I do find it kind of hard to believe that you would be anything but good person, Dean... I mean, I'm sure you've always used your best judgment... even if you've made mistakes."

"Like Kuwata-kun... the thing he did to Maizono-san was reprehensible, but... he was scared. He didn't know that he was putting everyone in danger, or that he was putting his own life on the line, either... someone tried to kill him, and he wanted to get out... that doesn't excuse the horrible thing he did to Maizono-san, but... I don't think he deserved what happened to him... I still feel so horrible, voting for him..."

Noticing that she's made it to the end of the tomato (before she got to her fingers, luckily), she puts the knife aside. "I think... people who do bad things, after making bad decisions... they aren't always bad people, who don't deserve forgiveness..."

[righteously]

He's gotta say, excited is a hell of a lot better than crying. He can handle a lot of things, but for some reason, young girls crying is just... not his area, like, at all. He moves while she slices, preparing a pan, preparing the stove, preparing the meat, but his hands move slowly- enough to indicate that he's listening to her, really listening.

You don't think you deserve to be saved, god damn but that line's come back to haunt him so freaking often these last few years and he can't help but hear it echoed in the things Chihiro says to him.

He licks his lips slowly, stares forward as he works rather than meeting her eye. "Guess that just depends on the kinda bad things they've done, doesn't it?"

That's an ominous statement admittedly, and he turns, tugs a crinkly plastic bag of lettuce out of the fridge and holds it out. "Round two, vegetable master."

[petabytes]

"Oh... should I cut this thinly, or... I guess for cheeseburgers, the pieces should be flatter..." She mutters mostly to herself as she assesses the vegetable, eventually placing it on the cutting board and getting to work.

"...Well, I... maybe I don't know you that well, but I still think you wouldn't have done anything you have with bad intentions... and even if you did, it's obviously something you're trying to make up for... I don't think what you did is that important, as long as you can acknowledge that it was wrong, and try to move forward and do the right thing..."

She sighs, putting the knife aside for a moment. "I'm sorry. This must all sound so trite. I'm only a teenager, after all... I don't know why I thought I'd have anything meaningful to say to you, or that anything I could say could make you feel better, especially since I don't even know what happened in your past. It's not like I'm one to talk, either... I've done some really cowardly things..."

[righteously]

He arches an eyebrow as she talks, mostly to herself, about the best way to cut lettuce. Kindly refrains from throwing out his input, because whatever she decides? It's going to be completely fine. You can't really screw this up. A little self-determination never hurt anybody, and not every decision needs to have a right or wrong answer.

Meet gets thrown into the pan, a sharp hiss cuts off his response until he muffles the sound by covering the pan with a lid. His hands get dusted off on the dish towel in grabbing distance before he turns to her finally, lips pressed, expression faintly amused. "Trust me, kid, nothing you're saying's trite. And it's all shit I've told myself over and over again since, like, the dawn of time. But it's ancient history, the whole bloody mess. Mine and yours. Can't changed what happened, can't change what we're going back to, but what we can do? Is eat these burgers. And after that? I'm gonna find you a goddamn taser. And then we'll see if we can't find some kinda... more effective non-lethal solution to your gun problem. But let's just..."

He nods his head toward the pan. "One step at a time."

[crosscompiler]

"All right... one step at a time."

Chihiro sets the knife aside, gathering up her sliced lettuce with a light sigh. "Thank you for taking the time to help me. Not just today, either, but... just... in general, I suppose. I've never really had anyone like you to look up to before, and... well, having you around means a lot to me."

She smiles faintly, looking off into no direction in particular, folding her hands in front of her. "A taser... one of those electric stun-guns, right? That's probably a better place to start. I mean, I hope I won't have to use it, but... you never know, right? Better safe than sorry... It will have to do for now, until I can get strong enough..."

Looking at her, standing a full head shorter than Dean, wearing that apron, her small hands nestled together - she looks so dainty, it's hard to imagine that deep inside her is a burning desire to become strong and to use that strength to protect others. It may be difficult to picture the demure, soft-spoken Chihiro as someone's guardian, but even if she has a long way to go, she's already shown that she has the drive and determination; she'll just have to take it - like Dean told her - one step at a time.