2025-07-08: A Pact Forged
- Log: A Pact Forged
- Cast: Myunghon Yeo, Shinjiro Aragaki
- Where: The Cardboard Dragon, Hirasaka Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: July 08, 2025
- IC Date: June 07, 2012
- Summary: Myunghon is approached by Shinjiro for a job that may put them in grave danger. While they don't trust the teen at first, Koala March vouches for him, and the hunt is on.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
The Cardboard Dragon's got a little bit of a trick, to those in the know, though it's not always a guarantee -- if you come after hours, chances are, you can catch Rumourmonger Merry to speak about the dark side of Sumaru... if you don't want to just talk to an anonymous Poster in the Dark Side of Sumaru.
The card shop's closed now, and Myunghon is busy at the couch. There's a corkboard on wheels shuffled into place, with an enormous map of Sumaru with red woolen thread and various pins charting locale after locale, as well as photographs and painstakingly-written post-it notes and theorems. In front of them is a pile of... glue? And other school artifacts, with various notes from an open journal and a laptop at their side that they're typing into.
They're doing crimes to the couch again, with their god-ankles. That's horrible laptop-typing posture.
A pile of Koala March crackers are in a bowl next to them. They haven't started stacking it yet.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro Aragaki steps inside, the door clanging as he does. He tried the knob instead of knocking, having heard the rumor.
Stepping inside, he's a tall young man, clearly a teenager, dressed in a thick red coat (yes, even in this hot weather) and a beanie cap. If there's air conditioning on, a slight shiver can be seen, but is mostly suppressed.
"Yo. You Merry?" he asks brusquely, taking a look around. it's easy to conclude he isn't here for books, as he approaches the couch.
"You're going to damage your posture," he ends with, glancing at them with serious eyes while reaching into his pocket to pull out a water bottle and take a drink.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Hoo... this isn't the usual kind of clientele.
Rumourmonger Merry is still dressed in their usual dress shirt and pants, with that long black suit jacket slung around their shoulders. Hmmm. A thick red coat, unusual for the weather. Large and long enough for concealment, though there aren't any noticeable shapes that suggest weapons on a first glance. Either Shinjiro is unarmed, or he's really good at concealing weapons -- smaller items, like pocket knives, or even hand revolvers.
There is, indeed, air conditioning, because it's June.
"You have indeed reached the home of Rumourmonger Merry, where your hopes and dreams can... possibly be other people's vibes," Myunghon remarks, continuing to clatter on the laptop. They're doing REAL IMPORTANT work. If Shinjiro takes a closer peek, a lot of the pins on the board are of schools -- but not only schools. The pictures of the people on the corkboard are somewhat familiar...
... some of them are the Joker Killer victims reported on the news. And some are not.
Then, they reach for a bottle of glue and... and... and...
... takes an experimental lick???
Unseen to Shinjiro, their laptop is on a document which has a header:
JOKER KILLER FILES
Somewhere all the way down they have gotten distracted with:
WHICH SCHOOL HAS THE BEST TASTING GLUE THO
"How can I satisfy your curiousity tonight?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"That's going to solidify," Shinjiro replies the instant Myunghon puts glue on their tongue with a bemused look. But, this is apparently Merry, so...
"You're a Rumormonger? I'm new in town. Tatsumi Port Island," he clarifies, so they know how far away he means. "Heard that anything you spread comes true. Is that so?"
"I'm looking into something personal, thought you might be able to help me out. Looks like you're already digging into it," he gestures a hand towards the photos of the victims. "What's your rates?"
Another shiver, less suppressed.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon's one visible eye bulges like a goldfish, unsettling pupil fixating on Shinjiro, like they're extremely deep in thought for what must be three weeks to their neurons, but is six seconds to the physical realm. "This is an extremely important side-investigation. I must understand what each school within the Sumaru area uses for glue, and what their taste is," they say with all the importance of someone who's doing ballistics on the smoking gun which is going to implicate the murder.
... how???
"That's me. I'm Rumourmonger Merry. But you can also just call me Myunghon. Myunghon Yeo, owner of this little card game and book store," Myunghon candidly introduces themselves.
Tatsumi Port Island, huh? That's coming up again and again... Chikarin said they'd talk to them about a rumour regarding Gekkoukan...
"If it catches on," Myunghon remarks on the account of the rumours. "But we're pretty good at making something *hip* to talk about on social media... *or* unhip."
They take the air conditioner remote and gently tosses it Shinjiro's way after noticing the less-suppressed shiver. "Oho. The Joker Killer, hmm...? And it's... 'personal'. That's the most dangerous kind of quest to be on, when it comes to a sequence killer." Myunghon quizzically peers at Shinjiro a bit longer.
"I'm not charging money right now. But you look capable, and I'm low on manpower for the job. I think we can come to a... deal, to scratch both our backs."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"You could just ask the students at Cuss. Some of them probably already..." Shinjiro gestures again, taking a sip of his water. "You'll poison yourself if you're not careful."
"Neat," he says about rumors. He files that information in the FOR LATER box.
"Yeah. I recently got intel that he took someone very dear to me." Shinjiro is outright honest - an info broker can't do their job without knowledge, though he won't share everything.
As the air conditioning remote is tossed, he shakes his head. "It's June, it's your shop, I can't impose," he says. But he's *clearly* cold.
Though, a deal, huh? He was willing to pay, but... information brokerage doesn't sound like a bad deal.
"Sure. Equivalent exchange, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"You're the customer right now," Myunghon points out, vis a vis the air conditioning controller. "And if you're cold, you're cold. Don't worry, I'm a chameleon." Do... do chameleons have intrinsic bonuses to temperature? They seem to have forgotten the comment already, because something has come up that has them stacking Koalas, one at a time.
"But... how do I know you didn't get sent by one of the mystery Powers That Be..." Myunghon does muse, first, and each Koala seems to be a supplanting bit of information about that. "You are young, and though They do tend to use local chinpira and other delinquents, you don't fit the profile. But that's just surface profiling, a very dangerous assumption to make. Hmmmm."
They place a fifth Koala on the stack.
"Koala March is vouching for you. So I trust you," Myunghon decides. ... just like that? "The Joker Killer kidnapped someone? That's very interesting. It doesn't much fit with the public M.O. displayed so far, but..."
A pause. "I have a feeling that information about the Joker Killer is being media-controlled, and more in just the usual way mass media shapes a narrative. There's no proof right now, though, but I can start to see through the reeds behind the waters..."
A longer pause. "So, first you want some information from me. Get me up to speed on what you already know, and we can fill in the blanks."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"... you don't, that's fair," Shinjiro says. He's willing to end it there, if Myunghon doesn't trust him, but-
He is given permission to change the air conditioning. After waffling for a moment, he turns it down, allowing himself to shiver less.
As he's doing that, Koala March vouches for him. "The crackers?" Okay, they're *real* weird. But apparently they're one of the best, from what he's heard, so...
"...no, she died." Shinjiro clarifies, sighing. "My... best friend's sister. Ten years ago." Wait, ten years? The Joker Killer wasn't active then.
"You'd be right," Shinjiro mentions about the media-controlled part. He clearly *knows* things, but is also clearly being cautious how much to reveal at once.
"What I say here doesn't leave this room without talking to me." He really means it, too. What he knows is...
"Her name was Miki Sanada. She died in a fire at an orphanage ten years ago, on Tatsumi Port Island. It was ruled accidental. Another orphan," he doesn't identify them, "saw a mysterious person before it happened, but wasn't believed. Even I didn't believe them."
"That man was Tatsuya Sudou, the son of Foreign Minister Tatsuzou Sudou, who helped him cover it up. Last I heard, he was locked up for it, which means he has an alibi... but the police suspect him as the Joker Killer."
How does he know *that*?
"I don't know how he escapes, but I don't care about that as much as whether or not we can find him. I'm trying to take him down - alive. There's two ways I can think of..."
He takes a breath.
"Either you stumble on a murder... or you are a victim or create one."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon lets Shinjiro work through the air conditioner first. Best to not rush these things. There's liquid gold here, their senses are screaming out loud...
Perhaps Myunghon was naive -- or perhaps they were salivating at the possibility of a new irregularity to throw interest in the case, when Shinjiro confirms that it was a kill, not a kidnapping. His best friend's sister, ten years ago... they would've been babies then. Basically babies. Kids are babies. This is a scar that runs deep through his heart from when his heart was half the size.
Such scars will last his entire life.
What I say here doesn't leave this room without talking to me.
"Wait, then," Myunghon speaks up. This is another fact-checking test, very direct, but appropriate. With a minute amount of focus, Kudlak rises from Myunghon's coat in a column of verdant Blue -- the Persona snaps its fingers soundlessly, and Shinjiro can hear it--
The buzz of the air conditioner can't be heard anymore. The incessant yelping of the dog outside stops.
"We have five minutes before I get too tired to keep it going," Myunghon speaks.
Assuming Shinjiro keeps speaking -- their intrigue just seems to rise more and more. They start biting their bandaged nail. Ten years ago? The Joker Killer wasn't a known threat there. This is a lead to the origin. Miki Sanada. An orphanage, in Tatsumi Port Island... so far away from Sumaru. There weren't any tracks leading to Tatsumi. It's suddenly become a place of interest for them.
"Tatsuzou... Sudou," Myunghon repeats, as if they're rolling each kanji delicately. They're a long way away, all of a sudden. New connections, new strings, old generation...
"You have information that not even street-ears can easily get, young one. Either you were tipped off by someone much more in the know... or you have dangerous connections. Possibly both."
Shinjiro speaks of how he doesn't know how Tatsuya Sudou escapes. "... create one..." A pause. "You're considering calling the Joker Killer to make him show up, aren't you... or force someone else to do it."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"What'd you do? Your...Persona?" Shinjiro asks, confirming he has one. He hasn't seen one like that, though he's only seen less than a handful...
But he keeps speaking.
Once he's done, he takes a long drink of water. "They're one and the same. I'm... not a Rumormonger, like you, but I keep my ear low to the ground, and I have old connections."
But, Myunghon settles on the million dollar question. Is Shinjiro Aragaki willing to call the Joker Killer?
"Yeah," he says for one long worrying moment.
But, then, he sighs. "But I won't endanger anyone else... I'm already doing enough by involving an info broker. Another's life... ending that has consequences you can never escape." It doesn't sound like a kid just saying things to sound smart. It sounds like he's had a long time to think about this. Did he lose someone else, or...?
Wait, then who would he call on... it only leaves one person possible.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon has an almost imperceptible smile. So Shinjiro does have the gift. He can see it. "It's just a trick. There are Spells that Mute your enemies. I just shaped it in a little bubble around us so no one can peep in."
The Rumourmonger then greedily devours two Koalas, because now they're in a constant battle with the Mafui Field draining their SP and brave, delicious chocolate Koalas restoring it. It's the battle of calories, and Koalas are the foot-soldiers sacrificed on the cruel and violent battlefield of the Joker Killer.
So, it is one and the same. Old connections. Old, indeed. A ten year old connection... each sequence killer has a backstory, and Myunghon can't see it yet. A powerful Foreign Minister. The Powers That Be that are controlling the closest people in their life. Their own father, so scarred and now a puppet of fascist capital and national security. All threads... where do they converge?
"My life is pretty cheap," Myunghon reassures Shinjiro in a way that won't. "A good Rumourmonger knows to stay out of the line of fire and get other people to do it instead, because intel doesn't spread from cold, dead lips. But you can't cozy up with the truth that way... you can't get so close you can hear its heart beating..."
A longer pause.
"I suggest we put that idea on the shelf until we really run out of ideas. Do you have a name I can call you?" Myunghon asks. "A few other leads regarding the Joker Killer did fall into my lap. There are key persons of interest I still need to meet and discuss matters with. And..."
A pause. "A Rumour isn't completely magic. If you spread a Rumour that I'm so easy I'll run three laps around Kasu High in exchange for Nutella donuts, I still need to work my legs and get tired and rest. The Joker Killer will fulfill the contract, but it doesn't remove them from having to do the legwork of a discreet killing... ..."
Their eye bulges again as they think long and hard. A pair of women and a sergeant. "The way they can elude the police and cover their tracks this long... we'll be in trouble even if we summon that Killer to our doorstep without being ready."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Myunghon tries to reassure Shinjiro. Instead, he frowns. "Don't say that. Lives aren't cheap." Even his isn't... it's just ending soon enough that he could sacrifice himself without an issue.
"Alright. I agree," he says about keeping it on their back shelf. If they can avoid it... good. Though, he pauses at nutella donuts. "...is that *true*?" He can't tell with Myunghon.
"Shinjiro Aragaki. Gekkoukan High School, third year," he introduces himself. "Thank you. Now... you wanted me to pay it off? How will I be doing that?"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
The way Myunghon says that their life isn't cheap isn't... flippant, in the way some people say it. There's some part of them that believes it to be truth, for one reason or another.
They make a face. "Three laps for donuts?? No, do not be foolish." A pause. "Natto donuts, though..." Eww?? "Mmm. No, I still despise exercise. Besides, I'll look like a weirdo running around Kasu High. I'll end up spreading a Rumour I'm some kind of pervert trying to climb into school grounds."
"You can't perfectly control what *kind* of Rumour ends up spreading, you see. People are people, and every time the Rumour is repeated, it gets less and less accurate. People misremember or mishear. You've played that telephone game as a kid, right? It's the same principle."
Shinjiro Aragaki, Gekkoukan third year...
"I must be popular with Gekkoukan kids for some reason..." Myunghon murmurs. "Hmm. You've got a solid reason to hit the streets for your own ends anyway, so how about I introduce you to some other Rumourmongers and Persona-Users? You'll build up your familiarity with Sumaru City and its back alleys, and I get intel back from you that way."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"That's even worse," Shinjiro replies about the natto donuts. He can't even imagine that, unlike the banana ramen, which he has Decided To Try Making Himself, a little bit of mad scientist in his heart.
Though, when they mention the Gekkoukan kids, he thinks. Who else have they spoken to? He doesn't pry, though.
"Sounds good. We have a deal, Myunghon."
A pact forged... two people who believe their lives can be spent, for differing reasons. What will be the consequences of this partnership?
That's something they just can't know.