2025-07-13: The Rise of Team Whoop-Ass
- Log: The Rise of Team Whoop-Ass
- Cast: Ulala Serizawa, Maya Amano, Katsuya Suou
- Where: Lunar Palace, Konan Ward, Sumaru
- OOC Date: July 13, 2025
- IC Date: June 09, 2012
- Summary: Ulala and Maya invite Katsuya to their place to talk about what's going on in the wake of the attack at Ebisu Beach, and formalize their little group. There are snacks. Katsuya's attempt at a name suggestion is outvoted. All hail Team Whoop-Ass.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Lunar Palace in Konan Ward is a lovely apartment complex, and the home of one pair of roommates, Maya Amano and Ulala Serizawa. Not far from Ebisu Beach comparatively, after the murder attempt, the two fled home, helped each other patch up, and then presumably, promptly, passed out from fatigue and low SP.
Now, they need to talk to Katsuya. But there's nowhere safe to talk, especially if cops might be on the take. So the only place to go...
Is home.
The front entrance to their apartment belies its sinister aura. There is a Story here, one of doom and tears. Even so, the door is unlocked, and Katsuya's been told to simply let himself in, because-
Ulala needs all the time in the world to prepare.
She has not gotten it done fast enough.
The main room has never been as bad as Maya's, but trash still piles up. A laundry basket is in the corner, holding up piles of clothes; a big black trash bag is shoved next to it. Newspapers and magazines pile on the table - Ulala hasn't gotten to them yet. The couch, thankfully, is clear, though not the cleanest, and the room feels Livable.
Let's not go anywhere else in the apartment, okay?
Ulala is brewing coffee, with a small tray of snacks out because that's what a Proper Woman does when inviting someone into her home.
She has an ice pack pressed to her cheek, as she takes a breath. "He's one of the good ones, right?" she asks Maya as they wait for him... though obviously he is, if he fought against those Murderers (Attempted). It's just her doubts eating at her again.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya has learned in these situations to just keep out of Ulala's way. Any attempts to interrupt the flow of things would just result in her getting in the way. Cleaning has never been her forte (and likely never will be). She's curled up on the couch putting a bandage on one of her fingers. It has cute bunny heads on it.
"Yeah, you don't get a good feeling from him?" Maya does and she likes to think she has good intuition. "Oh, don't throw out those magazines. I promised someone I'd drop off some issues of Coolest."
None of those magazines look like they're in any state to be given to anyone except the trashman.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
The long and short of it was--
There were complications, once he'd returned to the station with Hamade. There had been lot of questions from their superiors between the both of them about what had happened.
But no one with bullet wounds had turned up at a public hospital. And as for the body they'd been sent out there to find, well, of course there wasn't one.
Not anymore.
He's come after the close of work for the day (paperwork, again, especially as the investigation into the beach incident proceeds). But who is it who is behind the attack? Umie had mentioned 'the NWO', but had clammed up when asked for more information. Something dark is afoot in Sumaru City, darker than the demons that crawl its shadows, or a serial killer who murders by request.
The first and best place to start is with his allies from the incident where it feels like this all started -- the same allies who had also shown up during the beach incident.
Katsuya knocks out of courtesy, then lets himself in. "Hello?" Leaving his shoes by the door, he takes but a moment to consider the apartment he's found himself in. It's... lived in. A little bit messy. Messier than he'd expected, in fact. But given the last few days, perhaps it's to be expected: they likely haven't had time to clean.
It's a little awkward, he reflects, to come into an apartment where two women live. Yet, it's not as if he has better options (well, outside the safehouse, or the church, but it's not as if the two of them are familiar with either of these...!).
With some mild trepidation, he makes his way inwards into their apartment. The... the neighbors aren't going to assume anything about a male visitor, are they...?
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
"It's not that, it's just..." Ulala starts in reply when she hears Katsuya's knocks. "Come in!"
As Katsuya walks in, Ulala nods, looking closely over him to see how badly he got wounded, if at all. "Katsuya-san! You okay? Get here safely?"
She nods to the couch, hoping Maya will make him some room. She herself can stand if necessary, she's the hostess...
Ulala brings out the snacks and coffee, giving him a minute to settle in, before-
"Fuck," she finally vents it out. Maya hadn't heard her talk about What Happened yet except to make sure the younger woman was okay, but this is the first she's just let her mask off about it.
"I don't understand the world anymore. How do we go from magazine stories to serial killers to the supernatural being real to some sort of psychic serial killer alliance? It doesn't make sense," she says, chewing on the side of her index finger but avoiding her nails.
Sighing, Ulala starts realizing she just started spilling her emotions. "Is your colleague okay?" she changes tacks to something more important. "They were definitely after her, right? I'm not crazy?"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya was absolutely not worried about what it might look like to have a male visitor at this hour to their neighbors. It hadn't even occurred to her to be worried.
Maya pushes aside to make enough room for the entire trio to fit on the couch. "Hey, Katsuya-san!" She pat the empty space on the couch next to her. "Ulala, you come sit down too!"
Maya was wondering the same thing Ulala was, but Ulala got to it first. She took the opportunity to grab some of the snacks. She was always starving after these Persona battles.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
He nods. "I did. This is not far from the station. I was a little surprised." It's also not that far from the beach, which itself has its advantages: if it weren't risky to go there on his own, he'd be interested in seeing what it looks like there now.
If he's got any lingering wounds from the fight, they're not showing. He looks... normal?
Then again, he did escape with the girl with the healing spells and the bow in the car when he'd made his exit. There's nothing healing can do about the rips in that suit jacket (or the bloodstains) but at least his body wasn't worse for wear.
"How are the both of you? Those women had weapons as well. I am sorry that I had to leave you both behind; I was relieved to find out you were both safe." He had to move quickly to get Hiori out of there before she got hurt or worse: even a trained officer doesn't stand a chance against Persona-users (and demons, which he thinks he saw on the scene in the end).
He gets about a minute to settle down and take a seat on the couch. Next to Maya, as she indicates, which immediately causes him to second-guess the decision. Was this appropriate? He--
Ulala curses, which prompts him to sit up a little straighter as he looks at her and seems a bit taken aback (it also serves to take his focus off of the mundanity of where he's chosen to sit on the couch). Most women he's known didn't...
But it seems to be how she is. "Well..." he hems at first. "It isn't easy to handle, but that is the situation we are in." Katsuya pauses. "Hamade-kun? She is upset about what happened but in good spirits," he says, which is more or less the case. "I think we should speak with her soon, together. She has been doing her own investigation into the Joker killings, and from what I heard of her findings and theories, she was remarkably close to what we know." He pauses again.
"Someone else must know how close she is, too. We were there to investigate a report of a dead body on the beach. I wonder if the person who reported it was behind those who attacked us."
Katsuya, you're so close to getting it, and yet so far. Can a grown man really be this naive...?
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Oh, good. Katsuya hasn't dwelled on Why They Were Snooping At Police Business. Good! Good, good, good.
As Ulala thinks this, she nods about the station. "It's a good part of town, yeah."
Maya asks her to SIT with them though, and she considers. The couch *will* fit them, but is it polite to sit while hosting...? No, fuck that, she's not standing, so she takes a seat with them.
"It's fine, honestly. We got home safe, but-" she gestures to her ice pack. "The imperious one tossed some sort of... nuclear fire at me? It felt like I'd imagine that, at least, and then her basket case of an ally was using all sorts of things to us... didn't expect enemy Persona users, though."
Taking a small treat off the plate, she delicately unwraps it to eat, but waits to take a bite. "I'd be willing to meet with her, if you think she'd be interested. Does she remember what happened? You think she'll awaken to a Persona, too?" Ulala doesn't know how it works.
But Katsuya has a theory. Ulala considers it - she's not great at logic puzzles, but something sticks out immediately.
"How would they know she'd be the one to come? Did they ask for her specifically? Or... Katsuya-san, could have someone in your department tipped them off?" It's a hell of an accusation.
But there's a lot of cops in Sumaru, aren't there? It's a hell of a gambit to call a disturbance as a lottery option to get a specific officer... it doesn't make sense.
"Ma-ya, what do you think?" Ulala asks before popping her treat into her mouth.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"I haven't been able to find any new leads myself," Maya admits after she's finished her first cookie. "If there's anyone else investigating, there's no reason why we shouldn't put our heads together. Whoever the Joker is, he isn't making it easy to find out anything about him."
But now, it's not just the Joker they have to worry about. Since all of this trouble with the Joker Phenomenon started, one strange thing after another kept happening. Pretty soon 'strange' would be the new normal. And 'normal' would be the new 'abnormal'.
"It makes sense to me that there'd be a leak, though," Maya said, taking another one of the cookies. She doesn't bite into it -- not yet, anyway. "But how would we chase a leak down?"
Maya looks at Katsuya for this one, her head tilted ever-so-slightly to one side. He's got to be the expert on these things, right?
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
To be honest, considering the reason why they were there hasn't even begun to cross his mind. To him, it was just a happy accident.
Besides, right now more front and center in his mind is the fact that he's sitting on a couch in the home of two people he technically only barely knows, even if they had risked their lives together (on multiple occasions now). Is there... something weird about this? Is he being weird about this?
Fortunately, he doesn't get to dwell on it. He'd noticed the ice pack. "Is that healing well?" he asks. But he shakes his head. "That one woman did not appear to be in her right mind. I wonder..." He folds his arms across his chest, as if in thought, then nods. "Hamade-kun... She remembers what happened, but it doesn't seem that she could see our Personas." Or at least, not all of them. Didn't she see that woman's Persona, now that he thinks about it? "She's still shaken, I think, but she should recover. I'll keep an eye on her." He pauses. "Perhaps we could ask Baofu for some assistance..." He says it like he doesn't quite like the idea of this plan, though. But they can't be picky: even Maya, a reporter, says she's not found any leads, and if this is what it takes to keep their one source safe, well, then he'll 'get his hands dirty'.
(is this because he accepted the CRIME from Myunghon's Persona...?)
How did they know it would be her? "Well..." Katsuya glances between the two of them. "Hamade-kun is... in a similar situation as I am. Her ideas are not taken seriously as she is a junior officer, and not even on the investigation team around the serial murders case." Also, she's a young woman, and he's not so naive as to not see that part as a component of the problem...
Though it is a little uncomfortable to say that part out loud.
But, could it have been someone on the force...? He looks taken aback by that suggestion. "Of course not...! Putting another officer in danger like that would be unthinkable! No one in their right mind would do such a thing..." Right? Right...? He fidgets with his sunglasses, as if he could cast aside that thought so easily.
But even Maya thinks it's likely. "Do you... really think so?" he asks her, as if at a loss. Is the call really coming from inside the house? "..."
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala has not dwelled on whether it's weird to be sharing a couch with Katsuya... her doubts and worries are in ENTIRELY different places. Mainly... if the Joker Killer has allies, do they...know?
"Yeah, it should be fine. Seems like we're more durable than we should be, huh?" She say about the injury, before twisting something in her head. It's good Hamade is fine, but...
"Baofu... we're going to have to get him involved. If we don't, a guy like that might use our information against us, right?" It's better safe making an ally than sorry making an enemy.
Ulala IS smart enough to sense sexism involved in THE POLICE FORCE may be a factor. She is also polite enough to not mention it, as she looks between Maya and Katsuya.
"You have no leads, he has no leads... I definitely think there's a leak. It's too fishy! I mean, you see it all the time in movies, the corrupt cops, right? Those stories had to come from somewhere."
Ulala has been on a lot of movie dates. She feels like an Expert in this.
"...or maybe they're not in their right mind. Could be that, too. Either way, we need to get to work. If they're sending people after the innocent... is it really safe to stand by?"
What will that say about her?
"...but first order of business. We should figure out a name for ourselves. No rush, but... text me if you come up with anything! We need a cool, snappy name... apparently there's Phantom Thieves in Tokyo and such, we can't be the only ones who are just the '20s-Something Club'! That's not attractive."
Ulala looks to Maya. She'll *definitely* understand the importance, right?
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya completely shifts gears. All thoughts of smoking out a leak have evaporated with Ulala's newest (and greatest?!) suggestion. Even the cookie she is still holding is temporarily forgotten.
"Whoop-Ass Team!" she exclaims, pumping the arm that's still grasping the cookie.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
he only one in the history of forever who would be worrying about sitting on a couch with two women in their own apartment is Katsuya Suou, let's be serious here.
Perhaps it's not fair of him to cast aspersions. Baofu has only helped them so far. There's just something about the man that makes Katsuya uneasy, as if he were somehow criminal in some fashion. "I agree. There is much we still don't know about all of this. His expertise will be of use." He just looks so uncertain when he says it, though. "In any case, he may be able to learn if anyone is still targetting Hamade-kun. I am still worried they might attack her again."
To whit, Ulala brings up 'corrupt cops' and Katsuya outright grimaces. "Serizawa-kun, surely you can't believe what you see in movies! ...It's true that there are officers with no sense of decency, but..." There can't be anyone like that at the Konan Department. There... just can't be.
At long last, those darker thoughts hanging over him like a cloud, he reaches out to take one of the cookies and a coffee. Breaking the cookie in half, he takes a bite pensively (ah, storebought) before then taking a sip of coffee as Ulala voices another matter they need to settle out--
They need to figure out what they're calling themselves. He looks at her, mid-drink.
Maya makes a suggestion!
Katsuya just about chokes on his drink of coffee. "A-Amano-kun, that isn't-- surely we can't call ourselves that!"
Why not, Katsuya. WHY NOT, KATSUYA.
"Er-- how about something more, ah..." Respectable. The word he wants is respectable. "We are seeking, well, truth and justice, after all. Why not call ourselves 'Team Justice'?"
He says it so earnestly, as if he is not, in fact, an adult with a job, as a detective.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
"Psychic phenomenon were relegated to movies too, and look at what we've got!" Ulala protests when CALLED OUT.
But, it's name deciding time. Maya has one, Katsuya has another. She considers deeply.
Whoop-Ass Team (or Team Whoop-Ass, as she'd suggest) is straight to the point. It's not the politest, but... it might strike fear in the heart of their enemies! (It will not.)
Team Justice, though, is mature, suave, adult. It's the name of a team of proper adults who are here to fight evil! It's perfect...
If you're a nerd.
"Oh, definitely Team Whoop-Ass. I like the ring it has, you know?"
Sorry, Katsuya, you've been outvoted.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"We could go with Whoop-Ass Gang if you prefer that!" Maya is willing to make concessions in the name of Katsuya's comfort. But the Whoop-Ass stays.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"That's... that wasn't 'real' either," Katsuya protests, shaking his head. He may well be fighting a losing battle here. Fiction feels a lot like what their lives have turned into of late...!
He sets down his coffee cup and looks between the two of them in the wake of his own suggestion. Surely, they'll see reason and consider that they can't call themselves...
...
...Oh, he's losing this one, isn't he...
"We... aren't really calling ourselves..." he starts, trailing off again. Maya gives him an 'out': they could use Whoop-Ass Gang!
"'Gang'...? That makes us sound like criminals," Katsuya bemoans, in some sort of purgatory in which only squares like him can exist. "I-if we must... 'Team' would be best..."
Don't mind him, he's just foreseeing the future in which he has to introduce their group and he doesn't like it one bit.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
"Let's go with... Team Whoop-Ass, then. Rolls off the tongue than the other way," Ulala tells Maya, slightly ignoring Katsuya's pain. Until...
"Aren't we technically criminals for all the times we'll be interfering in an active police investigati- no, nevermind." She won't make his life worse. (EXCEPT SHE DID, SHE JUST CUT HERSELF OFF)
"Well, team! Looks like we have a name, a plan, and some knowledge. I can poke into the supernatural community some more, if Maya wants to do her journalistic investigation and Katsuya-san wants to do some detective work to dig up some more leads?" She's saying it taht way to hide the fact she has No Special Investigation Skills like the others. Oh no.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya was literally about to say the same thing! Maybe it was because they lived together for so long, but sometimes they were completely on sync. Right now was definitely one of those times. Team Whoop-Ass and now this. They were definitely on the same wavelength!
Maya held out her arm at an angle so her hand lay flat in the middle of their trio. "Team Whoop-Ass!"
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
It does roll off the tongue better that way. But you won't catch Katsuya admitting that!
But, aren't they technically all criminals already because they interfered in an active police investigation--
don't say that to him, you'll make him blue screen, ulala
...oops, too late.
At least he recovers quickly enough, picking up his coffee and taking a draw from it as if his life depended on it.
"It would seem so," he says, as if he's trying very hard to pretend the last five minutes never happened (reality is his anchor and it's been doing a lot of sinking of late). "I will speak to Hamade-kun and see if she would be willing to speak to us, and see if Baofu would be willing to help protect her." Probably, yes, given their mutual aims. Of course, it might also be that he'd want a favor in return.
Maya, shouting the name of their new group, thrusts her hand into his space. He's not such a drip that he doesn't know what this is about, but does he really...?
Yes, he does, actually. With trepidation, he adds his hand to the stack. "Er, Team... Whoop-Ass." He sounds exactly as enthused as he looks.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
It's fine, Katsuya. A social bond has been formed! As the group puts their hand into the stack, Ulala raises hers, an easy-going smile on her face, though she glares at Katsuya as if 'TRY HARDER'.
"Team Whoop-Ass!"
And so, the link has been forged... may the heavens have mercy on them all.