Seers and Scones | Jack & Usou & Company | Epilogue
stellamethyst:
Usou blinked as she was now faced with these two strangers, both about as quirky as the concept of a Super High-School Level student. Her eyes went from one adult to the other as Jack introduced them, and a smile grew on her face as she felt entertained by his introduction of them. She hid her smile behind a hand, but her giggling was apparent.
“G- Geez, uhm– it’s very nice to meet both of you!” She laughed, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand and reaching out with her other to take the cookie. Her smile suddenly dropped when Jack whispered at her, her eyes widening before looking at him to say, “W- Wait, I’m sorry–?”
Then her own dad came into the mix, interrupting Usou from saying anything more. It looked like he had calmed down supremely from before, smiling and all. He looked to Usou and Jack, amused by their behavior.
“You both can stop keeping secrets, you know. Don’t be rude, Usou,” he said, then placing a protective hand on her shoulder. Understandably so, considering the context of the situation. As her mother came closer curiously, he looked to Jack’s parents with a big grin that made apparent where Usou got most of her looks from.
“We’re Usou’s parents– er, Stella’s? Parents? I suppose? Is Usou fine?” He laughed, looking down at the seer who immediately began to sweat. She was about to become defensive until remembering that there was no threat of her name being out at this point. “Y- Yeah! Usou’s fine, keheh…” she assured her dad before looking at Jack with a sheepish smile.
“Usou is, er, me! Yeah. Uh– this is my dad and my mother! I, uh–”
“Mitsuo Tsukino,” he interrupted Usou, most likely trying to ease her away from stammering into a mess. It was clear that she was feeling a little bit pressured about revealing so much of herself all at once, especially with her odd little identity that she had been carrying. He gestured to his wife, continuing off with, “And this is Aya, my- ahem, sorry, my wife…!”
“… … … Yes…” Usou’s mother was clearly lacking in excitement that her daughter and husband were carrying. She could only stare at Jack’s mother and father before glancing to Jack himself awkwardly, unsure how to speak. She wasn’t one to socialize with other parents- in fact, the very idea annoyed her. She didn’t have many friends to begin with…
But it was only natural to be polite to your daughter’s friend’s parents, right? Aya reached out a hand to shake theirs, smiling, “S- Sorry that we hadn’t introduced ourselves, earlier, I didn’t know you were his relatives…” No, no, she knew. It was kind of obvious.
“...No way. Your name is Usou?”
...Of course there was no way her real name was Stella - not every Japanese kid had weird parents who gave their kids names in English. Still, though, he’d gotten so used to calling her Stella... it’d be difficult to adjust.
Well, not as hard as it could be - her name was Usou, after all. He wondered how she’d felt when he’d been stating how much he hated lies, back in all those trials. And now, his best friend was named Usou. The irony was so thick, you could cut it.
“That’s... kind of cute, actually.”
While Jack was talking to Usou, his mother had reached into her picnic basket for two more scones - one for each of her parents.
“It’s definitely all right! We didn’t approach anyone until now because we weren’t sure who were parents, and... we didn’t want to make anyone feel bad.”
Even for people as eccentric as Jack’s parents, they still had common sense (or at least, his mother did) - and it probably wasn’t the best idea to draw attention to the fact that they were the parents of one of the survivors when the parents of those who died might be in the audience. Now that everyone had emerged, though - how could they not?
Jack’s dad merely grinned.
“It’s great to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino. I don’t know how you managed it, but... somehow, you managed to raise someone who could get Jack to question himself in a way I couldn’t.”
That grin widened, and he crossed his arms, laughing.
“Now, if you could just get her to get him to like British literature...”
“Dad! No!”












