Atarashii sempai

[x-kaminari.livejournal.com]

After Noriko's attempts at larceny, Jean decides to seek help in the form of someone who can really relate to what the girl is going through.

(Posted early due to offlineness.)



Jean sighed, closing her eyes. Tonight had not been a good night. First her conversation with Laurie, and then what had started as a somewhat stern lecture over to Noriko had escalated rather quickly to yelling and what Jean could only assume was swearing on the part of her charge, and then throwing things. And then the walls in Noriko's room had picked up a new scorch mark and, as frustrating as she found their current charge, Jean had nothing but sympathy for the look of fear that had oh-so-briefly flickered in the girl's eyes before her face closed down again. Now, half an hour later, Jean sat in her office and once again tried to come up with some solution. Some way to get through to the girl - hard enough given the language barrier, and made worse by her complete distrust and dislike of Jean herself.

Well, if she wouldn't listen to Jean, maybe there was someone else could get through to her. Someone who'd dealt with some very similar issues. Picking up the phone, she punched in a few numbers and let the phone ring - Amanda was undoubtedly out of the office by now, but there wasn't a rush. When it clicked her over to voice mail, Jean said, "Hello, Amanda, this is Jean Grey-Summers. I was wondering if sometime when you were free you might come by the school. I have a favor to ask. Thank you."

---

Jean smiled at the blonde sitting in the chair opposite her desk. "Amanda, thank you for coming."

"Not a problem." Amanda shifted slightly in her seat, giving the older woman a brief smile. "You said you needed a favour? No-one gone missing again, I hope?"

"No, thankfully, we've gained students, rather than losing them." Jean sighed, turning serious. "The favor actually relates to one of them. We have a new international student - Noriko Kikuchi, from Japan. She's... Well, she came here with quite a few problems, I'm afraid. Problems you, my dear, will possibly find distressingly familiar."

Amanda raised her eyebrow. "Well, I'll help any way I can, but I'm not exactly trained with kids, Jean. Not like you lot are here. Unless you've picked yourselves up another witch?" She wasn't trying to be flippant - Jean was obviously concerned - but it was second nature to make jokes, even small ones, when she was unsure of something.

"No, not another witch. Another addict." The words were straightforward and to the point, but Jean's tone was remarkably gentle. "Noriko's mutation is uncontrolled and one of the aspects includes basically overcharging her body and her mind. When she got here her body was chock full of sleeping pills, to which she'd added a number of drinks on the plane. We also have reason to believe she's been using stronger drugs. Now, though, all of that is mostly out of her system and she's going through withdrawal, in addition to the powers ramp up. The other day one of the medlab volunteers caught her trying to break into the medicine cabinet."

"Ah." Far from being offended, Amanda accepted Jean's bluntness with a slight nod. "I can see why you called me in, then, especially if she's a bit of a handful. What're her powers, do you know? Is that adding to things?"

"Bit of a handful is possibly an understatement," Jean said, and there was a hint of a smile at that, and at the memory of how much of a handful Amanda had been herself. "Noriko's an electrokinetic. She absorbs electricity from nearby sources and stores it within herself, which creates the overcharge in her body - speeds up her heart rate, increases brain waves and occasionally misfires her nervous system. She can discharge the power through electric bolts, but is extremely unwilling to do so most of the time, and there's intense distress when she loses control. Which is what she uses the sedatives for. Added to all of this, her English is... well, atrocious is kind of the nicest word I can come up with."

"Hah. After your run of the last batch of new students, it sounds like you've used up your good karma with this one." Amanda's tone was wry. "I see what you mean about thigns being familiar. I'll try to talk to her, maybe let her know she's got someone who knows the road she's on, so to speak. Depends on her really whether she takes me up on it, but I can try." She gave Jean a mock-pleading look. "I don't suppose she knows any Mandarin or Arabic or something else I speak? Latin?" It wasn't meant entirely seriously.

Jean snorted. "I wouldn't bet on it, although it's always possible. I have no idea how close Mandarin would be to Japanese. I assume not at all, but it's never been my field."

"Not much at all, no." Amanda shrugged a bit. "Ah well, we'll muddle through. Let me make a quick run up to the kitchen, see if I can't find her something to distract herself from the cravings, and then we'll go see your latest acquisition, yeah?"

Jean chewed at the inside of her lip. "Definitely a distraction would be good, but you'd probably be better off going to see her without me. She and I... haven't gotten off to the best start. By a long shot."

Amanda had to bite back a snort of laughter. Deja vu indeed. "So, just like me and Bartlet, back in the day?" she asked. "Not a problem, I'll let myself in then."

---

Noriko wasn't pacing around her room - pacing was more straight forward, more regimented. Less completely random. It wasn't even a given that she'd reach whichever wall she was aiming at before turning and going off somewhere else, her steps echoing her thoughts in their uncontained chaos. She'd been forbidden from going out of her room if someone wasn't with her, which was stupid and she wasn't a child, not that that red-haired bitch would ever see that. "Kusatta akage. Aitsu bakabakashii busu daikirai." It was probably just as well that Jean couldn't even hear, let alone understand the insults.

Amanda hadn't been able to find cinnamon sticks in the kitchen - she still remembered Moira's gift of the distraction back when her own addiction had been first discovered. But she had found a batch of Pocky, and remembered Shiro's obsession with the Japanese delicacy and figured it couldn't hurt as an ice-breaker. So she'd left an IOU in the kitchen and wandered back down to the medlab with the treat, following Jean's instructions to find Noriko's room. There was only a brief nervous pause before she tapped on the door, not wanting to just walk in. Small dignities were hard to find when you were an addict.

Noriko blinked at the knocking on the door - she wasn't expecting the doctors for a while yet, and almost no one came to her room to visit, for all that she'd run into other students out in the public areas of the medlab. Opening the door, she peered out at the unfamiliar girl. "Hai? Anou... Yes?"

"Hi, I'm Amanda." The older girl stuck out her hand, careful to use her more generic British accent - the London mannerisms wouldn't help with the language barrier. "I used to be a student here, and I thought I'd stop by and introduce myself. You're Noriko, yes?"

"Hai. Kikuchi Noriko desu," she confirmed, letting Amanda shake her hand, although it was clear the act wasn't something she was comfortable with and she let go as soon as she could. Bobbing her head in what could charitablly be called a bow she added, "Yoroshiku." Not really feeling up to fighting with English at the moment, she simply stepped aside and waved for the girl to come in with a "Douzo."

Amanda walked past, giving Nori a nod. "Thanks," she said, waiting for Nori to close the door and turn back to her. "It gets pretty boring down here, so I thought you'd like a bit of company. Distraction." She grinned a little. "I've been stuck down here a few times myself. Counting ceiling tiles isn't the most exciting thing in the world."

Noriko sighed, slumping against the door. It would be wrong to say she didn't have the energy for this - in truth, she had far too much energy and that was the problem - but she didn't really feel like fighting with English right now. The headache was pretty much continual these days and the language thing didn't help. "Summan. Eigo wakanai. I English. No." Well, that had always worked at chasing off English speakers in Tokyo...

"Ah." Well, that made things much trickier - obviously the girl's English was as bad as Jean had said. And Amanda's Japanese was non-existent. Oh for Doug's powers right now... "I'm sorry. I'll talk slower." When in doubt, try food. "Are you hungry?" she tried, pulling out the container of Pocky. "I found this in the kitchen. Japanese, yes?"

Certainly when Amanda slowed down it seemed as though Nori was tracking a little better, although the way she was biting at her lip, it wasn't certain. All of that vanished, though, when Amanda pulled out the box. Noriko's face lit up like a pinball machine. "Uwaaa! Pokki! Sugoi! Wow. Pokki! In America?"

Amanda grinned. "There's two Japanese students here. And there's a lot of Japanese stores in New York. I live there, so if you wanted something, I could bring it for you." She took a seat after handing Nori the box, watching her with a slight smile. "It's hard, when you're in a new place. I'm from England, and I didn't like it here when I first came."

Cracking open the box Amanda handed to her, Nori carefully opened the first packet and offered it to the other girl, mulling over what she could figure out from what she'd said. New York - that was a point... She had slept through the ride from the airport and not seen much, but certainly the school didn't seem anything like Tokyo, but maybe New York would be better. "Was hospital also?"

Amanda nodded, taking a stick of Pocky and nibbling politely at it. Sweet things weren't her thing, but she couldn't smoke down here. "Sometimes. My powers gave me a lot of trouble. Too much power for me to cope with."

Munching on her own snack, Noriko thought about that. Powaa. Yes, she knew that word. "Un. Nori mo. Is many power. Not like."

"I didn't like it either. Too much, made me crazy." She shrugged a little, still vaguely embarrassed at some of what she'd done way back then. "I did stupid things. They had to put me in hospital, to help me."

Nori arched an eyebrow at Amanda, then waved a hand around, taking in the medlab room with the motion. The other hand lifted to point at her temple, making little circles as she said, "Kurukuru... pah!" flicking the fingers open on this last in a little explosion.

The older girl chuckled a little. "Hospital makes you crazy too?" she clarified. "I'd offer to stage an escape, but Jean reads minds."

Noriko crinkled her nose - she wasn't sure what Amanda was talking about, but she recognized the name of her jailor. "Doctor is very much not like."

"Jean's all right. Dr. Voght? She's scary." Amanda tilted her head a little. "How long are you in hospital?" she asked, as clearly as possible. "Leave soon?"

Noriko wasn't sure what 'scary' was, but certainly the way Amanda said it didn't sound good. But she didn't feel like arguing. She took another pocky and shrugged. "How long is I don't know."

"Bugger." Amanda's tone was sympathetic. "If you'd like, I could visit, maybe bring you something to do? Books, music, that sort of thing? I have a friend who speaks Japanese very well. He could help me find what you'd like." Boredom was the worst enemy of addiction - it gave you nothing else to do but focus on the fact you were without your fix. "I bring something to do, yes?"

The Japanese girl lit up as Amanda started listing off things she could bring by. Not only were they simple words she understood, but it was the prospect of not having to sit and stare at the ceiling or flip through the same magazines for the hundredth time. "Yes, is please?" she said, practically bouncing up and down. "Books, no, shikashi... but manga? Ettou... comic books?"

"Comic books, yes. I can do that." Patting the pockets of her jacket, she found the small notebook she carried around for jotting things down - like thoughts on magic - and a stub of pencil. "Write down the names for me? Japanese is okay. My friend can read it for me." She grinned. "There's a store in New York... Kinokuniya?" She mangled the pronunciation horribly. "Japanese bookstore. When you're out of here, I'll take you."

"Maji de?" Noriko stared at Amanda, her smile getting wider. "Kinokuniya wa, Nyu-Yooku ni aru? Suge!" She took the proffered notebook and pencil and quickly started writing down titles, some with added stars, underlines and Japanese style smiley faces. Notebook and pencil clutched in her hands, she held them straight out in front of her, bowing over them with an "Onegaishimasu!"

"I have no bloody idea what you just said, but it sounds like you're happy, so that's good enough for me." Amanda laughed a little, taking the notebook and pencil with a little bow of her own - it was contagious somehow. And the smiley faces were cute. "Next time, I bring comic books, yeah? And my friend, the one who knows Japanese, okay?"

"Unn!" she said, nodding. "Ok!" Grinning, she made the 'ok' symbol with her fingers.

"Very much okay." Amanda found herself nodding back, still caught up in Nori's enthusiasm. "I have to go now, but I'll be back soon. And..." A sudden thought struck her, and she groped in her other pocket for the packet of spearmint gum she traditionally carried for classes and meetings and the like when she couldn't smoke. She'd just bought a new one, and held it out to Noriko. "For when things get boom," and she made the same gesture Noriko had earlier, the little explosion near her temple. "Something else to do."

"Doumo. Sankyuu."