Where I Always End Up

[deerinheadlights]

Sumire keeps walking through Tokyo after speaking to that Ren. He's lucky she didn't wring his neck right then and there, honestly speaking. However it does leave her listless to dealing with actual people right this moment. She's barely paying attention to where it is she's headed.

That is until, by some twist of cognition most likely, she finds herself standing in front of a half constructed stadium in Odaiba. Of course! Of fucking course this is where she finds herself! It's always where she finds herself isn't it?

Between Akechi's Shadow and his stupid Ren and just being here she wants to do what she's always done and beat something so bloody it seems like the stains would never leave her hands. She want to beat Sparrow's Ren so bloody he looks like Kasumi's Shadow.

She settles right now, for kicking the fence that zoned the construction area out. One way or another she was going to kill him, that was for damn sure.

Comments

[fogbornphantom]

Crow isn't entirely sure what brought him here. Perhaps it's mere curiosity. He'd heard that Maruki's practice wasn't present in most realities, but to see a construction site is certainly revealing...

And equally revealing is Sumire, kicking the fence. Tentatively, he walks closer. "Rough day, I presume?"

[deerinheadlights]

"You could say that." She has absolutely no desire to elaborate on what she's feeling or why to Crow of all people. "What brought you out to Odaiba?"

[fogbornphantom]

"Curiosity, mostly. I wished to see the differences for myself." And so he cranes his neck, surveying the site with a hand on his hip. "Now I see that it is indeed nothing like this location within my world."

[deerinheadlights]

"Uh huh." She doesn't really care how alike it is to his world. At the very least he didn't seem to know about Sparrow's Ren being around, nor did he seem to be doing damage control for that. "Is there a reason you had to scope the place out?"

[fogbornphantom]

"Partially to confirm its location, should I choose to investigate Maruki's Palace. The arrival of a certain Ren was admittedly a deciding factor." He watches her closely, trying to glean her reaction. "I don't suppose you've met?"

[deerinheadlights]

Well there it is. "It doesn't concern you." She knows that what he's trying to do is keep Ren on people's good side, or at least that seems like what he's doing. She doesn't really want him to solve her issue since she's plenty capable of solving it herself.

[fogbornphantom]

"With all due respect, I am allowed to be cautious when there are a fair few people here who may be inclined to do him meaningless harm." A scowl works its way across his face, and his voice even takes on a more familiar growl. "Feel what you feel. To be frank, I think it's only natural that he'd receive a cold reception, but like it or not, he is here. Aggression will not change what transpired, nor is it a constructive solution."

[deerinheadlights]

"I never implied I was going to do anything violent." She absolutely is but Crow isn't her parent and she's not obligated to be rational, kind or reasonable on his behalf. Sorry if she isn't patient and perfect like 'Kasumi' is. "Maybe I just don't care to talk to you about my feelings."

[fogbornphantom]

"Well, allow me to be frank." Oh, that growl intensifies. He hates that it's coming to this, but there's really no point in mincing words here. "I have the means with which to summon a Persona in reality. If you so much as think of attacking him, I will make it my problem."

He lets that point sit before he continues. "I do not want to be an enemy, but I am not going to stand by if people start targeting someone who clearly already feels an immense guilt for a situation that Maruki thrust upon him. His choice was not the correct one to make, but attacking him here will not change anything. If you must break something, Mementos and Palaces are options. This place as well."

[deerinheadlights]

She's not really surprised. Goro Akechi is never above making threats. That said she still thinks he's far too forgiving of someone that clearly is too busy wallowing in self pity to make amends for what he did.

"Boo- fucking- hoo," she mutters about Maruki asking Ren to make an unfair choice. "If I wanted to hurt him I could have done it already." Which is not untrue. She could have tried to strangle him in the middle of the Tokyo street, if she really wanted. "Can you go play mother hen somewhere else instead of ragging on me for nothing?"

[fogbornphantom]

"I am allowed to exercise caution. Your reaction to the mere mention of him, dismissing me as if it doesn't concern me, not to mention the timing gave me reason to make my stance clear. I would hope you know better, because you haven't done anything at this time." He scoffs, largely unfazed by the mother hen comment. "Believe it or not, I do still want to help Sparrow."

[deerinheadlights]

"Well I don't need you to do damage control because I'm not doing anything, am I?" In other words you're lecturing her like a child, Crow. "So if all you want to do is lecture me on acceptable behavior consider that maybe I don't want to hear it right now."

[fogbornphantom]

He heaves a heavy sigh. She's not wrong, after all.

"No, that's completely fair. I shouldn't have assumed. This entire situation is stressful for everyone, I imagine." He eyes the damaged fence. "Apologies. I suppose part of the assumption was because I've no idea how this is going to impact everything. It's not as though Igor ever does anything particularly regulatory, so we're all left to fend for ourselves in the anarchy of this place."

[pancakeboy]

Akechi has semi-regularly stopped by the Odaiba building site since he first learned its significance, so perhaps it's no surprise he finds a Yoshizawa... kicking the fence?

"Yoshizawa-san." Crow's words ring in his ears: she's rather crass. "Did the fence offend you?"

[deerinheadlights]

She's a little surprised by the sudden interruption, realizing it's yet another Akechi. He looks a lot more like the one she's used to than some of the others. "Maybe it did," she jokes back. If he was like her Goro he might actually care about what's bothering her rather than making sure she didn't do anything reckless. Or if he was closer to his Kurusu, as seemed to be the case for many of them he would rather her spare him her irritation. She wasn't really sure which was the case and she didn't want to bother someone she didn't know that well.

[pancakeboy]

Well, it would be a lie to say he's too invested in his world's Yoshizawa. He's noticed her intelligence and clarity of thought; he has a good working relationship with her father. He'd rather not see her hurt and, of course, he's aware of her relationship with Ren Amamiya, which has drawn his attention like nothing else. But friends? Hah.

He smiles, though, glancing up at the faded sign: rhythmic gymnastics world championship. "What is it, too many second places? Or"— his eyes sharpen—"something else altogether?"

[deerinheadlights]

His joke isn't nearly as funny as he thinks it is. "Aren't you hilarious..." she mutters to herself. "Can I not just be mad?" She asks him more directly, careful with the tone she takes with him since he seems pretty cold to her. She still has no interest in oversharing with someone that doesn't care.

[pancakeboy]

That's fine; he's not going to make her share—though he is interested in the interpersonal politics of this place, for his own protection as well as that of others.

"You can, of course." He thinks of Glitch, and her psychopathic traits—but also of Rose, who has her head screwed on so much more firmly. "After all, the fence will just fix itself. Much like Shadows in Mementos, don't you think?"

Now there's something he'd never have said to his Yoshizawa.

[deerinheadlights]

The Shadows? What, was he trying to get at something? She's not even that mad anymore, just on edge. "Why the Shadows specifically?" She can't help but ask. Even if he was trying to grill her to figure out more about her she doesn't really care. He could ask directly and she'd be happy to volunteer that information.

[pancakeboy]

"Oh, nothing in particular." He rolls on his heels a little, smiling a little again; in truth, he's just sounding her out. "Just the way we kill however many of them, but they always return. A bit like this fence."

He gives it a languid rattle, with one gloved hand. "I take it someone caused you a problem? I know we haven't been introduced, but I do like to keep my finger on the pulse." So to speak.

[deerinheadlights]

She supposes that he is right. Most of them, besides the people, return as if they were never killed to begin with.

"Yeah you could say that." It's not like Ren did Sumire herself wrong, besides maybe the one in his own reality. She just hates him for that and for what he did to Sparrow. Hates that it's probably not on his mind to even apologize he seems so wrapped up in his own self pity.

[pancakeboy]

"It must be quite something to have upset you this badly." But he chuckles, still fishing. "Either that, or you aren't very like the Yoshizawa-san I know. Not that I know her too well to begin with."

No, certainly not, what with the probability that she's been brainwashed by Maruki, yet is hiding a Persona under her hat. There's also his neighbour, of course, Crow's Yoshizawa, the bento queen.

[deerinheadlights]

"And what is she like?" It's going to be much more difficult to get her to say anything about what was bothering her when she didn't know him all that well. That and she was a little curious if his Sumire was anything like Crow's Sumire.

He was probably right that she wasn't like his Sumire much if that was the case.

[pancakeboy]

He gives her a rather more honest look, just briefly. "Hard to get to know. Which is consistent with the other Yoshizawa-san here. I can't say if it's the same for you—but then, who am I to talk?"

Turning again, he considers the building site, and the very respectable dent she's made in it. "Why this fence in particular? Any reason?"

[deerinheadlights]

"Probably difficult if she thinks she's her dead sister, yeah," Sumire agrees.

He asks her if there was a reason she was kicking this fence specifically and she shrugs. "Not really, but it can't possibly be a coincidence I ended up here." It was where she awakened her Personas after all. It was where she met her Goro and it was where Maruki's Palace was.