IC INBOX | OKADA IZOU

[goei]

@Izou

manslayer

---

ABOUT ME

The strongest, most genius swordsman to ever haunt the streets of Kyoto! That's me! So you better think twice before crossing me, ya hear?

NOTE

As long as you don't get in my way I won't kill you, probably.

Message @manslayer

Comments

[vogelfrei]

[ Pasta achieved!! See, this is why McGillis thinks Izou should be a bit more confident that he could My Fair Lady himself if he applied himself. ]

Looks like some combinations are just so efficient, they keep being invented over and over again.

[ Cultural exchange is happening! The vibe of this date truly shifts every five minutes, but it's not unpleasant. Izou will notice that McGillis does indeed eat like a lot more hastily than one would expect from him. It's all flawless tablemanners at least. ]

[goei]

[Yeah but then if he started acting dignified and talking normally he'd be just the same as Ryouma!!! Can't have that!!! Especially after he bullied Ryouma for doing it!!!]

Mm. But then, with Ramen, Soba, Udon, or whatever else, yer supposed ta slurp'em up. Means they're tasty, y'know?

[Truly. Rich cultural exchange. He does notice, but decides not to say something about it, at least not right this moment.]

[vogelfrei]

Really?

[ He's had Japanese noodles before, but not in authentic cultural company so he ate that very carefully and with some confusion. ]

That would take some getting used to for me - I've spent so long training myself out of any kind of noise at the table.

[ Absolutely did not happen naturally, since tiny McGillis was like a feral hound unleashed upon any dinner. ]

[goei]

Mm. Easy way ta let the chef know he did a good job! But I mean, white people got all sorts of different rules about food. Apparently pickin' up yer bowl's rude fer you all too?

[Which like, How else are you supposed to eat your rice???]

S'gotta be tough havin' ta learn a bunch of fancy rules when yer used ta just taking whatever you can get. Doesn't stop me from wantin' ta see how you handle yerself around chopsticks, though.

[Teasing, a little.]

[vogelfrei]

Tough luck for you, but I've used them before.

[ Not a lot. But enough to not totally make a fool out of himself, he'd think! ]

Of course, you are still free to scrutinize my abilities. Next time.

[ The mysterious second date that has been previously alluded to and that McGillis is now making the executive decision to speak into concrete existence. ]

[goei]

Heh, I'll bring ya for nagashi somen then, see how you handle that.

[No he's not going to tell McGillis what it is. He'll have to come on this hypothetical second date to find out!]

Anyway, I think it's gotta be a testament ta how good noodles are that they got invented in multiple places. Even if it's still better with katsu on top.

[Izou accidentally reverse engineering chicken parmesan here.]

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis is going to be so baffled on Date #2.... ]

There's a number of different toppings at least, so maybe you have not found the ideal one for you yet.

[ Pretending he knows what katsu is. He does not know what katsu is. ]

[goei]

[He can't ask now after he acted like Japanese food was been there done that for him!!!]

I mean if ya ask me, any food can be good as long as you got the right liquor ta pair it with. Chocolate's too sweet on it's own fer me, but if ya got a nice drink ta pair with it, it's nice! helps draw out the bitter notes hidin' under the sweetness.

[Sorry about your favorite food, McGillis.]

[vogelfrei]

Too sweet, huh...

[ McGillis is aware that he's considered to have a pretty childish palate by most standards, which is why he'll do stupid shit like drink black coffee in public and pretend he doesn't actually completely hate it. But. ]

You actually like the bitter notes more?

[ Actually, he's just thinking about their kiss now. This may have taken a turn into metaphorical thinking for him now, sorry. ]

[goei]

Mm... Not exactly that I like it more, but it's a nice contrast with the sweetness?

[Izou would like dark chocolate more, is the takeaway.]

Y'know what they should do, is they should put a little bit of liquor inside the chocolate! That'd be good I think.

[Izou I have incredible news.]

[vogelfrei]

[ And McGillis can share these incredible news ICly - what a blessed day! ]

Oh, there are actually a lot of types that come with liquor inside. It's just not my personal preference, so I don't buy them often.

[goei]

[And now he knows what to get Izou for valentines day!!!]

Oh? Hell yeah! I gotta try that sometimes then.

[Hehe... But yeah.]

You did taste real sweet. [Don't just say that in public.] S'kinda cute in a way since ya don't look like the type.

[vogelfrei]

Another one of my little secrets, though not one I guard quite as jealously.

[ McGillis doesn't mind having it said right there in public. If anything, he is pleased that Izou is also thinking it. ]

How lucky I am that you seem to perceive it as a charm point.

[goei]

[Good because the waiter definitely overheard it, he's lurking around, perhaps because silently judging people on dates is his hobby.]

Yeah, I mean, it's like a reminder that you ain't really the big scary bad guy yer so set on tryin' ta make people think you are. At the end of the day yer a messed up weirdo same as me.

[vogelfrei]

[ This waiter is going to sell the gossip to Aaron later, mark my words.

... or maybe he's just waiting until he can clear the plates? McGillis is finished at least. ]

Of course I am. Though I don't think that precludes either of us from being scary. I've faced your blade - merely knowing you're a hot mess didn't make that any less imposing... or painful.

[ It's not accusatory. If Izou had never seen his dream and appeared at his doorstep with sake, McGillis might have grown deeply resentful of him for the limited mobility in his arm. But those things did happen. And as matters stand, he really just sounds... conversational. Maybe even vaguely fond? ]

[goei]

[WHY AARON?]

Damn straight. Sometimes you wanna feel a little scary, I guess. I mean, lotta people in Kyoto wouldn't have considered me worth a second thought until I started killin' people. None of us manslayers had a lotta social power beforehand. Shinbei wasn't even from a samurai family.

[But by exerting their force of will on the people... they left an indelible mark.]

[vogelfrei]

It's power that the world listens to, in the end.

[ As a fellow 'clawed himself from the streets to notability through murder and violence' type, McGillis is absolutely in approval.

Though that raises a curiosity... ]

How did you start killing, by the way?

[goei]

Well... Takechi sensei had supported me an' Ryouma even back when we were just learnin' the sword. Even paid fer me to go study in Edo since my family couldn't afford it.

[Which is not something he'd admit to just anybody. It's embarrassing he had to do that. But it's McGillis.]

I wanted ta make something of myself with the one thing I was good at. So when he asked if I'd be willin' to be the hand that dealt divine justice to our enemies... Why would I say no?

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis, at least, listens to this without any judgement. Having to lower yourself out of a lack of money, taking the only means you have at hand... Maybe others would question if all of that is worth starting to take lives, but McGillis doesn't have that kind of moral grandstanding in him. ]

How old were you?

[ No age Izou could possibly list would make McGillis feel any kind of pity for him, he's just asking for his own reference. ]

[goei]

[He thinks for a moment.]

23 I think. It wasn't that long after Takechi sensei helped found the Kinnou-tou.

[So it wasn't that Izou was deliberately spared being a child soldier so much as they didn't start deciding murders needed to happen until then.]

[vogelfrei]

[ ... McGillis blinks. ]

That's... recent.

[ YOU WEREN'T EVEN A TEENAGER??? ]

[goei]

[I WAS SURPRISED WHEN I LOOKED IT UP TOO. He just got lucky with the timing I guess ]

Yeah, well with how many officials I was offin' they were pretty intent on tracking me down I guess.

Kei joined up too as soon as Dad'd let him, but as far as I know he never had ta kill anybody.

[vogelfrei]

How strange to imagine that you've had a whole life before 'Manslayer' became central to your being.

[ McGillis is trying to imagine a murder-free Izou as a young man - in debt, involved with radical forces, but overall on the right side of the law. He can't picture it. ]

[goei]

Whole life? I was just barely gettin' started. I mean yeah, I was alive fer all those years before, but until we were teenagers me an' Ryouma were just kinda fuckin' around doin' nothing.

[To Izou, he wasn't really living his life until he had a purpose and direction. Very dog coded of him.]

[vogelfrei]

That is also hard to imagine.

[ Both because he can't picture Izou that way and because he can't picture what it's even like to be a tween who's life barely started yet. Theoretically, he's lived those days with Gaelio. But emotionally, he'd always been in such a different place that a lot of Gaelio's worries seemed alien to him. As far as McGillis is concerned, he's always been going through the motions rather than truly experiencing the stages of one's life as they are meant to be experienced. ]