personavelvetroomdr | Where I Always End Up

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Where I Always End Up

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.

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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.

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.

"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.

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.

"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.

"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.

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?"

"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.

There we are, then; Sumire, not Kasumi—at least in her head. He looks out at the site, acknowledging that with a nod before she goes on.

"Why do you say that?" He knows this is where Takuto Maruki will at least attempt to build a lab, but he doesn't know what significance that has to her. Or to this her.

She can't tell if she's being interrogated by him again, so she merely shrugs. "I was out here when my world's version of you accidentally brought me to Mementos." There was a lot else that happened but given his temperament she'll only elaborate by him asking.

...huh. Given everything, he can't project himself having ended up here in the normal course of affairs. "Interesting. And when was that?"

"About when I graduated middle school. Kasumi and I had gotten accepted into Shujin by then." Not that she had really cared for Shujin over other schools, other than the fact that Kasumi wanted to go for their athletics programs.

That is interesting. So are the two of them like Rose and her Akechi? She hasn't tried to plant him facefirst into the fence, or made any threats so far, so that's something. "Ah, so not something that happens in my world. I hope it worked out well, at least. I'm on good terms with my world's Yoshizawa-san, and I'd be sorry to hear it was otherwise."

What would that even mean, though? Is he the only one of him without a girl sidekick? For all he knows, Shrike had one too. Even Bug had that blue butterfly trailing him.

"My Goro and I are on good terms. I live with him." He had been nothing but kind and patient with her when she was practically helpless in Mementos, and had been there for her ever since. Hell, he walked her back to his apartment after watching her cave in Shadow Kasumi's skull, so good might even be putting it mildly. "I probably wouldn't have made it without him all things considered."

... so it is a similar deal to Rose. It's a shame he's not holding anything he can drop dramatically. "I see."

Kind and patient is not nominal for his self-image, nor is the idea of taking in waifs and strays. Admittedly, he wouldn't have let Yoshizawa die in Mementos—but this?

He forces a smile. "Goodness, it's sounding as if I've quite missed out. I'll have to keep a closer eye on Mementos when I return. Haha."

She'll know Goros well enough to see he's freaked.

"You look uncomfortable." She can't help but point out. He mentions that he missed out on finding a sidekick in Mementos but it seems like she and Rose are the exceptions to the rule. "Am I bothering you?" She may as well ask.

"Not at all," he says, convincingly. "If a few timeline variations were going to bother me by this point, I'd have gone mad long ago.

"Of course, I'm not the one who was kicking an innocent fence." Let's just bring this conversation back to her.

That only made her more curious as to why he seemed so bothered by what she said about her Goro, but he doesn't seem interested in lingering on that.

He wants her to keep talking about herself so she shrugs. "Better the fence than someone's face, right?" Not that she's above kicking Ren's face either.

"Ah, well. That would depend whose face it is." It's absolutely pleasant. Is he joking? Is he not?

He probably ought to be involved with any face-kicking, but depending on the target, it may well not be his business. "Should I take it the good doctor's back in town?"

Maruki, on the other hand, would be his business for sure.

He brings up Maruki and she shakes her head. "Thank god no. Sparrow's Ren is here though." And she had the misfortune of speaking to him after speaking to Sparrow's Shadow. She doesn't think she could stand the sight of Maruki who wanted her to think she was her perfect sister Kasumi in most other realities.

... and the smile's gone, as if it never was. His voice drops an octave; his face twists, quickly resetting to something less twisted.

"That Ren is here? No wonder you needed to break something." Reaching out, he seizes the fence in one black-gloved hand, giving it an ominous shake. "I suppose I should congratulate you, for restraining yourself."

He's still wondering how much she resembles That Futaba—and what form his bad influence took in this world. Sparrow's Ren, though. Akechi is tempted to estimate his lifespan in hours.

"He called me Kasumi and the only reason I didn't blow up at him was because of the other me." She admits. "I can't understand how he seems so...self pitying, anything that happened to Sparrow or her was his goddamn fault."

Somehow, he manages to look more forbidding, as if at the news of Sparrow's Ren he forgot to play nice. "That's how he seems? Self-pitying?"

It's what he'd suspected, and worse news than he'd hoped. A stupid decision would be one thing; Akechi could understand that. But if that Ren just broke under pressure? That implies many things, not all of which he wants to look too closely at.

"Even if he just cracked under pressure does he really have the right to pity himself?" He decided to make a choice that wasn't his to make. She doesn't think he deserves to feel bad for himself.

"The least he could do is lie in the bed he made."

"He may be doing that." He folds his arms, staring at the dent she's made in the wooden clapboards, up at the suggestions of girders and scaffolding within, before he glances back to watch her. "Doesn't make it any better, of course."

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