Brain Damage [Kasey]

Lunchtime. It was her favorite part of the day, at least before this whole QED thing popped up. While she hated it, it meant less people in the halls. It was silent for the most part, even if it meant more vomit, as well as bathroom located messes. The thought of them didn't off put her appetite, her stomach empty, hungry. She had gone to the roof, mainly to check up on her car without leaving the building, as well as seeing who else was still around. It was a nice view, but still it was not something she found herself enjoying.

She begun her decent of the stairs, her hands in the pocket of her uniform. In her mouth a skewer stick from the barbecue she had brought that morning. She ate it, even though it was cold. Little things like that never seemed to bother her. Her feet would slide against each step as she slowly walked down. The colored fabric that had been tied around her feet like bandages were tightly woven. They were stiched, bloodied and stained scraps of left over garments, shirts, and other discarded fabrics. From old silk shirts to dirty rags that were used too much, she didn't waste anything. The top of her uniform jumpsuit was unzipped, the top sleeves wrapped around her waist and tied in the front. Her shirt was white, with a pocket over her left breast. On it, an emblem of her other employer in blue. The uniform of any nurse; Scrubs. Around her neck was a purple plain lanyard with an identification card with the same emblem. In the corner of it was a picture of the same janitor but with pink hair. On it, a slightly different name, Kana Tsuna, one that she used at her job for many different reasons. Her silver hair bounced with each step downwards until she saw someone.

"Really? Again?" Kasey saw the girl, only to see the computer. She had seen it far too often, how could anyone forget? "I'm going to wax this stairwell today, you're gonna need to move later." she would say. . . . but the smell of the cookies suggested otherwise. "Or if you wanna gimme those cookies, you can just stay here for as long as you want, how 'bout it?" she smiled, kneeling down, as if to take a seat a few steps above her.

There was a lot of things she didn't need to be doing, but she did them anyways. The teachers were professional heroes. They didn't have the time to toy with and deal with all of the students and their petty matters. For as long as she was paid to be there for the day, she would task herself with these little things. She didn't have to, but she did. . . . and well, it was something that impeded her workflow. The girl gave the usual attitude, but this time, with the lack of a flighted meal, she would deal with the girl's own selection. Perhaps it was asking too much, but she didn't care. It wasn't like she was forcing the student to do anything.

"I mean, with this stupid drug, it's not like I really have somewhere else to be. Half of the school is in the nurses's office or is bedbound." She would taking a few for herself to take in her hands before moving to a seat behind the girl. As she would speak up again, Kasey would move a few move up from her, and to the opposing side of the stairs, the both of them blocking the passage.

"Just curious to what the hell ya doin'. Don't look like homework. I think? I don't really know what kind of homework they give out..." Kasey would lift one of the treats to her lip before snapping it in half. For once, she was going to savor her meal. She would place both of her feet firmly on the steps a few down from her and lean a bit forward. Enough to get a better look at not the screen, but the girl. "Were you born with those?" she would ask, refering to the tattoos and the piercing on her face. She was curious, and for once, the opportunity to ask was presented.

Deals and trades. Dark deals and darker trades. That was what went on in her life, as well as the dark and deep web. All of Kasey's evil and sinister secrets could be at anyone's fingertips... provided anyone could remember all of the names and identities she used. Constantly becoming a new person, everyday, and moment. How could any single sane person keep up with such complex things? Of course, if the person wasn't sane at all then perhaps...

Kanna went on to make light, or make fun, of the fools that fell to the drug. Maybe it was because of her own healing, or the use to Leviathan's abuse of her own similar nature that Kasey had not even noticed its effects. Still, she sipped from a water bottle filled with with the cure to something that the nurses struggled with. Of course, hidden in a room with other blue liquids, no one would think it different than other window cleaner. And for a girl who ate garbage, trying to drink what she drank, was an equally poor idea.

"Mining digital money?" she repeated it to herself. Wasn't mining those things people did in caves in the dark? It was something laborous with that weird crescent shaped tool. But if she was playing a game maybe, perhaps that was what she meant. Yes, that game with the squares and strange creatures. Digi Mine, or something, right?

As she held up her hand, Kasey's head would tilt a bit to the side, to line up with the hand to try and make out the design more clearly. Perhaps she would get some of this art for herself. How long it would last on her body would be unknown to her, but it was something she wanted to try. Whatever magical pen they used to draw it, must be magical to leave markings on someone's skin for seemingly forever.

". . . It's an expensive hobby and you know it." Setsuna was silent up until this point, sitting comfortably within the confines of her mind. He didn't want to know what had been going on in the school, and if there was anything for him, Kasey would have called upon him. While they were in the walls, he knew he was subject to watching her eat trash and garbage. A tasteless activity, one that fed him, but one he did not enjoy. Looking past her eyes, he too stared at the compass before retiring just the same. "We'll end up spending a small fortune on it. Plus, it doesn't last that long. Needless to say it won't be perma-"

"Body art." she repeated. "Oh, it is an ink tattoo." she would say, repeating what she had learned from books. She assumed it was pen, or paint, but if it was tattooed then it was done with a special magician that used a special gun pen... or something right?

But she nodded to the tag around her neck. Kasey looked down, her right reaching towards the card and it's plastic holder. Her fingers happening to cover the name she used there. The picture of her own natural pink hair would still be seen. And on her face, the same smile she wore every day. The one that looked forward to her large meals at night.

"Well, it is my other job." Kasey would begin to explain, probably more than she had even been asked to do. "I have many jobs. I do my secretary work in the morning, then I come here, then after here I go to the hospital to help the doctors and nurses." she would tell Kanna, all the while not realizing she was. "Saves me a bit of time not having to change from one uniform to the next. The faster I can get to my car, the faster I can get to work... well other work."

Personal assistant. Janitor. Nurse. Tailor. Driver. Murderer. Disposal. Maid. Was there something she didn't do?

She would watch the strange hand geustures silently, trying to invision what she was going to convey. Her eyes would follow the marked hand as it seemed to shut the lid of the computer. She understood what a lottery was, as well as money. Still, she had no real concept of wealth or value. The numbers in her bank account, or rather, accounts, were meaningless to her. They were just numbers, and it seemed the more numbers there were, the more value they had. But still, she had no idea how to count, much less how to read her own finances. Resting her elbows into the meat of her legs, she sat quietly. her face lay cupped in her hands as she took yet another long, dragged out lunch break. She continued to stare at the girl, only for her eyes this time to fall towards her belly, seeing the other marking there. Unlike the other, she couldn't really make out what it was. Was it a face?

She leaned on her left, as her right would shove the rest of the cookies, which rested in her lap now, into her face. The crumbs falling everywhere on her clothing. Who was going to clean up that mess? Oh right, she would. Listening, she would find the girl swearing, at her. But her words didn't seem to be angry. Was this that Stargasm people spoke of? Starrazm... Starblasm? Starchasim. Whatever that word was, was she doing it?

Kasey was silent, until like any time she ever talked to a student led to the inevitable conversation. "I wanted the graveyard shift..." she admitted it, just like the dozens of times before. "buuut, the school sucks, and I'm the only janitor, so my seniority means jack shit now." she would speak, leanind back to the railing, her hands resting in her lap. She would sign before continuing. "I prefer to work jobs where I don't actually have to talk to people.. or well, a lot of people. Tried being a waitress and man that sucked." She even gave a light giggle at the end of it. "This job really just pays for my booze... and well, my dental."

Her eyes were fixated on trying to make out what that symbol was, or what it was supposed to be. She would not understand that some tattoos were just random shapes that just happened to look really good, or pretty. "You gave me these cookies. There's still some in the bag!" She even pointed back at the bag. Surely there was a few cookies left in it, right? Or maybe she really just left her with a single cookie. Oh well. 'Tis the price of speaking with a janitor.

"It's not like I can't clean it later! I have to mop before I wave the floor anyways. She would say it, knowing fully well that she was making a mess. It wasn't like she didn't steam clean her own uniform, as well as clean up wherever she was. She was good at being clean, or at least of cleaning up to a point where no trace of her was left behind.

"I don't like it." Kasey would admit to the girl. Technology was not her strong suit by a long shot. She strayed from screens, and still hadn't watched television or the news any more than she did when she happened to pass by them. As long as her sister didn't appear on them, or Sato, then she didn't care. But she hoped one day Gigi would appear on the screen, as a hero who saved the day... some day.

"I prefer to move, or I will get fat." She said it, but it was pretty much a lie, even if she didn't know it. She didn't like being alone, much less in a room with computers. She even rarely used her own phone outside of the various chats she had access to. She had that life. She had that life for so long. Plants did not sooth her loneliness. And even so, she had left her home with all of them to die. But with the silence of an empty house, came the reminder of the needles and knives that had prodded her with the intention of-

"I like the job." she would answer. "I get to be the one to clean up after heroes. Maybe it's boring to others, but the idea of cleaning up the messes heroes can't do themselves is appealing, if not a bit funny." She would then ask about he taste in drink, only for Kasey to give the most absurd answer, or perhaps the one that was expected to begin with. "Any, and everything." Of course you do Kasey, you little alcoholic cinnamon roll you.

"I tried a lot of wines, even the like hundred year old stuff. Wasn't strong enough for me. I found out about this Soju stuff from my dad and I've been drinking that. I think last week I mixed everything, and he called it "Gonna Kill You", I never realized that every kind of combination of drink already had a fancy name."

Seki did not call it that name. Seki was giving a warning to the girl. And man, was he wrong about what she can handle.

As theu continued to exchange words, Kasey begin to move herself, her legs extending a few steps down, while her hands went back into her pockets. The stick she had been chewing on had vanished, almost as if they had forgotten it had existed. Written out of the story. But in actuality, she had eaten it, chewed the wood only to have it turn into mush, swallowed and made to digest later. Maybe it was eaten before the cookies, or perhaps with them, or maybe she was still chewing on it like bubble gum. It didn't matter. As she extended her legs, she rested her head on the steps, laying longways. She was comfortable, and for her back it most likely felt good. Whatever her reason for doing so was, the cartilage and the bones of her body would stiffen up, to prevent the possibility of some other pains later.

She mentioned her metabolism, and Kasey nodded to it. She didn't find the need to mention that her own quirk operated on feeding Setsuna, making her powers metabolism based. To her it was unimportant, or rather unrelated to the conversation. She didn't feel like trying to clarify that she didn't mean it in a literal sense, but that she preferred to burn her calories in a more normal manner, than making Setsuna use all of the excess energy.

Kasey was one of few, who took up only jobs she enjoyed. Her tastes were strange, but she had found herself never working at a place she hated, and if she did, she left shortly after. It was the reason for her flurry of many part time jobs. This place had been her first real full time job, at least until she remembered Ketsujo Corp.

"I can't drink my car. Besides, my car is in the shop now. They are puttin' in a brank new block and forgeded pistons or something. I forget." It was another expensive hobby. And out of the fleet she had access to, it was the only one in her name. "KC X1" was her plate, and something far out of the area they lived in. That strange red stripe across that plate only further made that strange loner stick out.

"I can bring some tomorrow probably. But I don't really think you should be drinking... at least, not at school." She would go onto say to the girl. She understood the law for the most part, and with everything that was going on, she already knew as much that none of the students really followed the rules. "As long as you don't take it with medication! Gotta choose one, not both, or you might not wake up." She would smile a large grin, only to have it fade after a few short moments. "At least, that's what people told me. I don't think it's true."

Cars had only recently been her obsession. They were the black devices she drove around Japan at night, full of a few masked people to go out and collect money and items. She understood the jist of what she was doing each time. They had gone around to Sato's own businesses and begun to rob the places. Kasey never did it herself, having been only the driver, but seeing as it was all of Sato's employees with each other, and that he had explained it as a training for his jobs, Kasey found nothing wrong with it. But with the other stranger routes to place she didn't know, she found actual crime with the people she moved around. She never trusted any of the bodies, but the car, the machine she used for each event, they kept her company. They spoe to her, talking back to her during those minutes alone in the vehicle. They knew her secret. They knew why they never came back home with the same number of people. They almost seemed to be the voice that told the girl which one to remove, each time...

"Well don't let a teacher catch you." Kasey would say to her. "Well I mean, there's a lot of things you could mix, all of them could be bad if you don't know what they are." She spoke, not from a medical standpoint, but from someone who had unknowingly mixed the wrong combination a number of times. She at least had learned what works and what makes her forget. But of course, with Setsuna, she would be able to remind her of anything worth remembering.

"Oh no, not the needles. I do not like them." Kasey would admit. All of the morphine and other things she encounter at work. She grew silent for a moment, only to ponder her own new assortment of things at home. "But I do have a few of those glass vase things at home. I don't know what they are called, but they are very pretty. You put water in them, and you put a little fire on a part of it and it makes bubbles." She would turn to face the girl, trying to figure it out. "One time, I got this stuff from my backyard and I put it in, and I completely forgot my own name." Kasey spoke, excitedly, but still confused as to what she was doing. "I think the gardener said the planter was Mary Jane. But I don't think we have anyone that works there under that name."