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[Ogami]
(If I wait just a little longer, Sakura-kun should arrive...)
[Iris]
.......
----
[Ogami]
... you just asked me why I answer to "idiot," didn't you.
[Iris]
Yes! Oniichan, that's just--
[Ogami]
WHO DO YOU THINK I AM!?
[Iris]
!!!
[Iris]
... you're Oniichan.
[Ogami]
WRONG!!
[Iris]
What are you--
[Iris]
Onii~chan~... you're not making any sense at all!
[Ogami]
THAT'S THE PLAN! Sakura-kun, NOW!
----
----
[Iris]
Mmmrgh~!
[Ogami]
Sakura-kun. That was good timing; thanks.
[Sakura]
No, it was thanks to your strategy, Ogami-san.
----
[Ogami]
... even a three-year-old could have thought up that strategy, Sakura-kun.
[Sakura]
But no three-year-old is NEARLY as good-looking as you are, Ogami-san!
[Ogami]
W.... well-played, Sakura-kun. I think.
----
[Iris]
Let me go! I hate you all~!!
[Ogami]
Iris...
----
[Iris]
IF YOU DON'T TELL SAKURA TO LET ME GO, I SHALL FEED YOUR SOULS TO... TO THE... DEMONS OF...
[Ogami]
....
Even Iris could hear something audible snap in Ogami's mind. Frantically, she reached out mentally, seeking anything that could be used to bolster her own powers, but... somehow, there was almost nothing there (in more ways than one). At this rate, she was going to fall to pre-Ogami levels of impotence...
[Iris]
It's not working... why isn't it working? WHY!?
[Ogami]
... the answer is simple.
[Iris]
Why...? WHY!?
[Ogami]
Your cowardly little Oniichan is dead! He's no longer here to stuff your fat face with enough fear to feed a third-world country!
[Ogami]
But in this hair... and in that stupid ticket-taking outfit... he lives on in me!
[Iris]
That shouldn't matter at all!! You're Oniichan! Your soul is destined to be mine! Mine!!
[Ogami]
I... I am Ichiro Ogami.
[Ogami]
And I've dealt with senile old folks who can't tell the right end of the ticket from the left end! I've dealt with dumbass jerks who think they can cheat me with a counterfeit ticket! I've dealt with snot-faced kids who treat me like dirt and get Maria to shoot me in the kidneys a whole bunch!
[Ogami]
I've survived for MONTHS in this hellhole of a theater! I won't be taken down by a prepubescent little French girl who, quite frankly, frightens me a whole lot less than a woman who stalks me twenty-four-seven and keeps stealing boxers from my drawers!!
[Sakura]
...
[Ogami]
... i-in any case! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?
----
----
[Ogami]
I'M THE GODDAMN TICKET-TAKER!!
----
[Iris]
.......
----
[Iris]
No one really worries about me...
----
Ogami pauses, suddenly uncertain. The fear of Iris-- that fear that plagued him from day one of living in the theater-- had disappeared, at least for now, but so too did the sudden rage disspiate as quickly as it came, leaving him quivering in his seat from the adrenaline rush.
Now what...? Ogami's mind was nothing but a blank. A hot-blooded blank, but a blank nonetheless.
[Ogami]
(C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, there's gotta be something I can say-- if I don't convince her here, my head of steam won't last me forever, and she'll turn into some kind of huge raging one-winged thingamajig with a badass theme song--)
... and suddenly, Ogami remembered just what Ayame had told him right before launching.
[Ogami]
Ah.
It was a horrible idea born of desperation, but...
[Ogami]
(It might be horrible enough to work....!!)
----
Thus, Ogami made the worst decision in his life.
----
[Sakura]
...
[Sakura]
Ogami-san... I knew it...
[Ogami]
(SHH!! Sakura-kun! It's not like that! I'm begging you! Back me up on this!!)
[Sakura]
But... but...
[Ogami]
I'll... let you peek in on me in the bath.
[Sakura]
But I already--
[Ogami]
No, not just through the cameras that are undoubtedly set up all over the bathroom and activated whenever I take a bath. I meant... IN PERSON.
[Sakura]
!!!
----
[Sakura]
And once you become an adult, no matter how much you want to, you can never go back to being a child.
[Iris]
................
......
....
..
[Iris]
Oniichan.... you're not lying...
----
[Ogami]
... ggn.
----
[Ogami]
... now, open your hatch...
----
----
[Iris]
Oniiichaaaaan!!
----
----
[Iris]
Oniichan...
With a mental shrug, Iris gave up her dream. With much of her power rendered completely inaccessible, she has absolutely no chance of making Ogami even LOOK at her anymore.
"Just a child," no matter what anyone else says...
----
----
----
But when his lips brushed against her forehead, that was when Iris came to the realization...
... that no matter what happened, or who he would ultimately choose...
[Iris]
Oniichan...
----
... Ichiro Ogami would belong to her... forever.
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