There's a little bit of quiet bustle in the station, and in the streets above. On the way to Sakura-san's house, Akira overhears talk of a rise in psychotic breaks, and mention of "mental shutdowns". The weird app lets her delete it, and stays gone for like five minutes after that, but then the next time she checks her phone it's back. Is that the normal way malware behaves? Does she know? It's certainly persistent, at least.

She passes a little second-hand store, a grocery, a coffeeshop, a little medical clinic, and some entertainments like a bathhouse, batting cages, and even a little movie theater.

Eventually she finds Sakura-san's house, down a side street. It has a gate, and a buzzer at the gate.

It's probably in the firmware or something. Who knows why it even shows up as an app. Shitty government code job? Whatever.

She stops at the gate and presses the buzzer, and does the little shift in her throat that lets her sound properly feminine. It tires her to keep her voice in the right register, but she's going to try and put forward the best impression she can. 

Let's see who she's going to be staying with.

Apparently no one is answering the door.

Well that's a problem. If Sakura-san doesn't let her in she has nowhere to stay the night.

She presses the buzzer again, a little more insistently. 

Much as she'd like to go up and knock, she's on probation and the last thing she wants is to "snoop."

If that doesn't work for another few minutes, she'll check on her phone that this is definitely the right house, and then see if this gate opens and she can go knock on the door.

After another minute, a delivery driver steps back out from dropping something off at the small apartment building next door. "Looking for Sakura-san, miss?", he asks.

Miss!!!!!

She fights down her smile and tries to keep her voice steady.

"Yes, I am."

"You'll probably find him at Leblanc, his coffeeshop. It's a street or two over."

She did see a coffeeshop down a side street on the way here, didn't she?

"Oh! Thank you. I'll head over there right away." 

And that is about as much as she can hold her voice without it cracking. She just nods and doubles back as quickly as she can.

It's a small place, with a red and white awning over the door, and text printed on it.

coffee & curry

Leblanc

A sign hanging on the door announces that it's open.

She lets herself in and looks around. Is there anyone in the café?

Leblanc does a lot with the little bit of space it has. Chalkboards hang behind the bar announcing coffee blends and curry and prices, and there's a little payphone at the corner of the bar, and a bunch of little booths along the other wall. There's a TV on the far wall, and a clock just right of the door, and a staircase going upward in the very back.

There are no customers at the moment.

There is, however, this man, wearing a black apron over a collared shirt. He's cleaning up a few dishes from some customers that just left. "Four hours for one cup of coffee," he mutters to himself, not yet having noticed Akira come in.

Wow, this place is dead. The side street location clearly isn't doing it any favors. 

Akira steps over to the bar and gives her best smile.

"Excuse me," she says, stretching her voice again. "Are you Sakura-san?"

He turns to look. "Yes, I am. Welcome to Leblanc. What can I do for you, miss?"

She lets the smile show this time. It still feels so good to get seen as who she is, even if the circumstances are awful. 

"I'm, ah - Akira Kurusu." She fidgets with her glasses, adjusting the temple. "I'm here about the -" Her voice falls for a moment, cracks. "The program." 

She's still hurt about it, even now. She'd expected the system to be on her side, to help her against the cruelties of the world. She knew it wasn't kind to trans people, but for a real woman on the street - 

It's not worth thinking about. She shoves it away, tries to focus on the new start she's being offered. That's a good thing, isn't it?

"I'm sorry to trouble you," she says. Her voice is more ambiguous, now. It doesn't always clock her, but she's not confident in it and that makes it harder to be brave.

"The—"

"Ah. Yes, I'll be taking care of you for the next year. C'mon back, I'll show you to your room."

"Thank you."

She'll follow him. It's simple enough to do.

Up the stairs they go, to an attic. A few cobwebs lurk in corners of the ceiling. There's a workbench in the corner under a tarp, a bunch of books on a couch and table on the left wall, various junk on a tarp on the floor, some boxes next to that tarp, some cluttered shelves on the right wall, a rack of coffee bean sacks, and a serviceable-looking futon under a tarp in the back. There's no air conditioning and poor insulation, judging by the slight chill Akira can feel.

Not what she hoped for, but it is at least a space. She'll just have to get some blankets for wintertime. And maybe a hand fan or two. 

The books are a good sign about Sakura-san. Any titles she can make out? 

She ought to be grateful that anyone's taken her in, but honestly it makes her angry that this is what she's ended up with. It's not fair. If her family would have just supported her she'd still be -

Bad path for her thoughts to go down. 

She bows to Sakura-san. "Thank you for your hospitality." It's not actually his fault that it is this way. Just the way of the world.

"Don't need all that formality with me, I just run a coffee shop. Used to use it for storage space, but it's full of junk now. If you want to clean it out, be my guest. I'm too busy to do it myself."

He leans back against the rack of coffee beans. "Got the gist of your situation. Something about an assault? Wouldn't have guessed you were the type."

Should she say it. She doesn't know this man. It might just make her look petulant. Or like she thinks she knows better. 

She does, actually, know better, but Sakura-san doesn't know her either. He has no reason to trust her word. 

"... I was trying to protect someone." The words spill out anyway, the wound still raw. "But I don't expect you to trust that."

He gives her an appraising look at that. Something resembling sympathy flits across his face for a moment. "I'm sure you were."

Then he straightens up, looking her in the eye. "Now listen up. I agreed to take you in as a favor to one of my customers who knows your parents. If you behave and keep your head down, your probation will be lifted. Cause any trouble, and you won’t have anywhere to go, got that?"

Ow. 

She's still not used to being treated as a criminal.

"I understand."

Then his expression softens just a touch. "Also, your case worker told me about you being trans. The main thing you need to worry about this year is staying out of trouble, but the way I see it, you’re only going to be able to do that if you have support. So… if there’s a specific way I should or shouldn’t refer to you, or anything like that, let me know."

Oh. 

Maybe this guy's not so bad after all. 

"Please call me Akira. If you're using English, she and her for pronouns. I know my given name would have been on the paperwork, but..."