Stealth Mission (Locked to minipancake)

[undyingcrow]

It was embarrassing, the way that multiple children embarrassed Karasu when he declared his challenge. In hindsight, he should have expected it. It was a public challenge, where everyone could see it. He did so specifically to make his intentions clear and to make an impact.

Which he did, obviously. Just not the impact he desired.

Goro Akechi has endured more defeats than he'd care to admit, and some damning ones, at that. Pancakes, spicy takoyaki... yet somehow, being verbally pummeled by a thirteen year old ranks above all the rest.

But it is what it is, and he can do little but move forward, anticipating his next move. His first stop? Daidara Metalworks, naturally. Untouchable's wares are useful enough in the Metaverse, but why pass up the opportunity to test a real saber? As he steps inside, he examines the various swords and katana with one hand beneath his chin.

He hears the door subtly shut behind him, but initially pays it no mind. Still, he'd be a fool to completely lower his guard, so he's listening all the same.

Comments

[undyingcrow]

"Only because I wouldn't stoop to the level of harming children." Not by choice, anyway, though that goes unsaid. Not to mention, it's only half true. Call Ren a child, and Karasu was more than prepared to eliminate him.

The one time he's grateful he failed...

"If I had reason to do harm, I would. And I certainly could. It's what I'm most adept at."

[minipancake]

Interesting. Wagtail is still watching him meditatively, as he eats his beef bowl. This is what he could have grown up to be. It makes even more sense of why Magpie is like he is, closed-off and scary—though, truthfully, Wagtail thinks he understood that from the start.

"That must be a good thing to know." There are, after all, enough people in the world he's wanted to hurt. And, both here and back home, there are still enough threats, as he's heard about from Ken.

[undyingcrow]

"Perhaps in the sense that I could defend myself, but self-defense is hardly what I 'excelled' at." Hmph. Time for another bite. "I orphaned two people, you know. Okumura had it coming, of course, but the same cannot be said for Wakaba Isshiki. Be grateful you've been liberated from that path."

[minipancake]

The words lodge in his stomach. He sets his chopsticks down. "You mean Haru-san's father?"

Wagtail has met the man. He doesn't like him; doesn't like his distance from Haru, or the large, fake smiles he gives him, knowing that he's one of Mitsuru-san's wards. As for Wakaba Isshiki—he knows of her. He's even seen her, and watched her, the same way he saw and watched Karasu. She's Futaba's mother.

[undyingcrow]

"Correct." The word is stiff, stilted, and he breathes a soft sigh. "Kunikazu Okumura is no better than Shido. He sought to use my 'services' to attain power and prestige and cared little for the consequences, as his employees were merely machines in his eyes, and his opponents targets to strike down."

[minipancake]

He pokes absently at his beef bowl, shocked to his small core. "I didn't know that."

Sure, President Okumura had the same feel to him as many of Wagtail's shitty relatives, for all his wealth and power. And sure, Haru locked up when he came into the room, as if she was in a cage, in a way he knows well. But he didn't think the man was a killer.

[undyingcrow]

"In all fairness, he also didn't have the means until I came into the picture, and people can be incredibly opportunistic, when they have the luxury to chase their ambitions without fear of consequences."

He scoffs, however, almost skewering another piece of beef with his chopsticks. "I'll warn you now, he will try to place his daughter in an arranged marriage. Without you as Shido's weapon, it's possible that his life will follow a different path, but even in the best case scenario, I doubt that will change."

[minipancake]

I'll marry her first, the child in him almost says, looking mutinous. But the emerging adult pulls the child back; already, he's sure he doesn't really feel that way about Haru. Still, it's not like marriage has anything to do with people's feelings.

"I have a feeling that won't happen. We already changed lots of things." Like him already knowing his Haru, for example. That's a butterfly with some big wings.

[undyingcrow]

"I suppose that's true, but I'd remain diligent all the same. It would be careless to assume everything will be so straightforward, not to mention that there's still that godforsaken cup to consider."

He's not entirely sure how much Wagtail knows, so he watches closely to gauge his reaction.

[minipancake]

"Cup?" It doesn't ring any bells. He racks his brains, trying to think of any way to make a cup dangerous.

[undyingcrow]

"The 'Holy Grail,' otherwise known as Yaldabaoth, who usurps and replaces Igor and intended to use you as his agent of chaos, pitting you against Ren." There's a fire in his voice, a sharpness to his features...

Still, he takes another bite, more ferocious than the last.

[minipancake]

"The enemy beneath Shibuya." He's forgotten his beef bowl—though when Karasu stabs into his, he turns to it and takes a bite, thinking.

"I know about that," he says, after he swallows. "Igor-san told me. He wants me to go home and find him there, before he gets thrown out of the Velvet Room."

It doesn't sound quite as if he trusts Igor, despite the respectful -san.

[undyingcrow]

He needs to relax, to regain composure. Slow breath in, slow breath out. It's... hm.

"You should talk to my Ren. He's the one who fought the damned thing."

If he could have been there, he would have, of course. That goes without saying.

[minipancake]

He watches Karasu catching his breath, with visible, careful alertness. As if he's ready to spring sideways at the least excuse. "How come you didn't?"

Karasu seems so mad about it, after all. That leaves precious few reasons.

[undyingcrow]

"At one point, I had no precise recollection. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I had died, and Dr. Maruki revived me." But no. Of course not.

He sets his chopsticks down, flat atop his bowl, and threads his fingers perhaps a bit too tightly together.

"Evidently, I did survive and even escaped my deadly circumstances, but left Tokyo to avoid being spotted and to maintain the illusion that I had died to Shido, so that the Phantom Thieves wouldn't have to contend with an unbeatable cognition."

[minipancake]

Cognitions, again. He knows about the Phantom Thieves—couldn't not, when he lives in a house with two of them; when so many more are scattered around the place, all with ready fingers that provide a curious tween with endless bedtime reading.

"This would all make so much more sense if I had a Persona," he mutters to his beef bowl.

[undyingcrow]

"I'm rather surprised you haven't sought one out." Hmm... This meat really is endless. It doesn't even look like he's made a dent.

Granted, he's also not wolfing it down.

"Between the TV world, trying to let your spirit of rebellion awaken in the Metaverse, and that gas station attendant, it's not as though you're lacking in options."

[minipancake]

He digs absently into the endless pile of beef. The egg has cooked into the rice, in crumbly yellow streaks; it makes no difference to him. But he finds himself reluctant to talk. "I'm planning ahead."

Thanks, Wagtail, that's ... comprehensive?

[undyingcrow]

"Planning ahead by choosing not to obtain a Persona?" Perhaps it's a matter of observation, then. Of weighing the options...

Karasu does take a moment to swish the egg around with his chopsticks, contemplative.

[minipancake]

He picks through his beef a little more, thinking, and even eating some. Then he turns around and replies, "I'm not supposed to get one yet. Oh, I know it was going to be a whole mess. But that doesn't mean it can't be different now.

"My whole life changed before I got back here. If it keeps changing, I won't be the same boy in a year or two. That might mean I'd get a completely different Persona, a more useful one."

See? He turns back to pick up some rice and onion, staring down at it. "It's a gamble. And I think it's a good one."

[undyingcrow]

Heh. All right. That's actually a fair point, and one that prompts a little laugh before Karasu takes a few more bites. "What? Not a fan of Loki or Robin Hood?"

[minipancake]

"I have a Loki plushie." Look at him smirking; the cheek of him. He pops the morsel into his mouth.

[undyingcrow]

"Yet you still want something more. Goodness..." Oh, Karasu's smirking right back, trying so hard not to laugh. An ambitious one, for sure.

[minipancake]

"I've seen Robin Hood. And Loki. They're—incredible." Hs voice gets far away, as he remembers Raven showing them off; remembers Shiro transforming into the giant hero with a bow. He'd wanted them more than he could say. "But I want something right for me. For whatever I'm going to have to do, about the cup."

He hasn't mentioned Raven's Evoker, or indeed Shiro himself; he's careful like that. But he reveals something. "Maybe in two years, I won't still feel bad any more. Maybe I'll feel more like Crow. And then I'll be completely different."

[undyingcrow]

Ah. So that's what it is. Self-doubt, expectations...

Karasu falls silent. It's... daunting, certainly, knowing that the future holds so much strife. Perhaps if he had known the same, he would have chosen differently, but his path is set. Wagtail's clearly is not.

It does provide some answers, at least.

"Then Crow is the ideal. An aspiration."