2025-08-04: Time Doesn't Stop
- Log: Time Doesn't Stop
- Cast: Shinjiro Aragaki, Mitsuru Kirijo
- Where: Hagakure Ramen, Iwatodai Station, Iwatodai
- OOC Date: August 04, 2025
- IC Date: June 20, 2012
- Summary: Shinjiro goes to Hagakure for lunch. Mitsuru is waiting for him with paperwork. It doesn't go well.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Mitsuru Kirijo has been busy. Well, she's always busy. But she's been investigating her former teammate and friend, Shinjiro Aragaki, and what exactly he's been up to before and after the rescue of one Fuuka Yamagishi.
Firstly, the matter of where he's been and what he's been up to: primarily, he has been found hanging out in the back alleys around Port Island Station, having his own little 'nest' there. At first, intel thought he might be going to a building there, but then it was determined he's *sleeping* in a hidden corner of the alley, homeless. He has met several members of SEES here, all of whom either were looking for him or ran into him on accident.
He's also been spending quite a bit of time in Sumaru City, around the Cardboard Dragon and other places nearby. People at Kasugayama High School (where, yes, he's been hanging out more than his own high school) have reported queries about the Joker Killer. There's also the chance he leaked information on Tartarus and the disappearance of Yamagishi to a Rumormonger, though that's more questionable to source, given how little SEES *knows* about Rumormongers.
He was definitely present at Fuuka's rescue, and also present at Ririka Kawase's awakening at the television studio, having come in to assist. He used an Evoker then, too, which is definitely not his original Evoker, but is unclear where he got it. He also attended both occult events with a young woman who assisted him in combat, Umie Akabane, who he's also been seen at social gatherings with, such as a concert.
Secondly, some other information.
Shinjiro has not visited the hospital as a patient or for a check-up in two years. He has not been arrested, despite his truancy, and he has frequented Hagakure Ramen, a place he goes very regularly, on very consistent days. He used to work there for some time, and has had multiple odd jobs, though none have stuck. His school attendance is abysmal, and he could honestly be expelled if he doesn't get it together... the leniences of the school can only go so far.
Today, at this time on a Wednesday, Hagakure Ramen in the Iwatodai Strip Mall is pretty empty. Known for their Shoyu Pork Ramen, the skin-cleansing collagen, and how charming it can make one, it's clearly a pleasant restaurant.
Shinjiro steps through the door, approaching the ramen bar, away from the emptier, more private tables. He's in his red coat, clearly in worn shape, as if he wears it every day. His beanie fits snugly onto his head, as he pulls out his wallet to confirm just how much money he has right now before pocketing it up as he reaches the bar. He's clearly poor, gritting his teeth.
He might be in for a rude surprise as he looks up, though.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
Mitsuru Kirijo is always busy. She's -always- busy. Busier than even she has any right to be.
But if there's one thing in Mitsuru's learned in this eighteen years and counting on this earth, it's that things don't get done until you do them...
... and some things, well. Some things require personal involvement.
That said: finding her target today was a priority, but not an especially difficult one for the resources at her command. What could be considered as close to daily routines as her query can get to was tabulated and analyzed. The easiest and most digestible patterns were assembled. And she picked the easiest route to guarantee she'd be able to corner her target in a situation not easily extricated from:
"Hello, Aragaki."
After all, everyone is the inevitable slave to their stomachs.
She's sitting there at the ramen bar, waiting for him, right next to the exact spot he sits at when here: wearing her iteration of "dressed down for summer," one might question how summery a white, ribbed turtleneck sweater might be - even sleeveless as it is - but at the very least, the black capris and strappy black sandals she wears makes for a breezier complement to her top. If nothing else...
Mitsuru -looks- comfortable. But then, some days it's difficult to say if she's actually affected by the weather like normal people. Maybe it's a money thing.
She's sitting there, though, posture straight-backed and impeccable, one leg crossed over the other. Just waiting. She doesn't even look Shinjiro's way as she greets him, like she didn't even need to in order to know that it was him walking in, right on the dot. Of -course-.
In her lap rests an ominous stack of papers.
No -- finding him wasn't especially difficult.
"Let's talk."
The difficult part was always what would come next, -once- he was found.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
It's okay, Mitsuru. Shinjiro is also "dressed down for summer", in his winter clothes.
As he hears those words, he considers turning around, walking out the door, and heading to Wilduck. He is also a smart young man, so he does not do this. Instead, he steps up to the bar, taking a seat at his usual spot next to where Mitsuru is sitting. "My usual," Shinjiro tells the owner, an old friend. If he's going to talk, he's going to not do so on a completely empty stomach.
As the owner leaves, he finally exhales the tenseness in his chest, turning to Mitsuru with a stony-masked face.
"What do you want?"
His tone is brusque, gruff, and also not quite unfamiliar. It's always been how he deals with tense things he doesn't really want to deal with: scare them away. Unfortunately, he also knows Mitsuru Kirijo is not someone you can just scare.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
My usual.
It's with those words that Mitsuru's attention shifts; she looks considerate for a single heartbeat of a moment, hand to chin. And then --
"... I would also like something," she decides; it'd be bad form, after all, -not- to provide business for an establishment she's making use of.
"One ramen if you would please, monsieur."
The man behind the counter makes a "u wot" face, decides she wants today's special, and then just goes about making both their meals.
It's only -then- that her attention turns to Shinjiro, just in time for that familiar, terse voice to address her directly. Her eyes shut; he might be trying to scare her off (in vain), but all it does is summon a nostalgic smile to those red lips of hers.
It's achingly familiar.
Unfortunately for Shinjiro however, this means she is in fact undeterred: if he wants her to get straight to the point, then she'll happily oblige. Shifting fractionally in her seat, she watches the chef as he works and comments, voice ever-level:
"So I see you have decided to throw yourself back into things." With an Evoker that was clearly not his SEES one, she knows painfully well that he didn't have it anymore. "Twice, in fact. Bien joué. I am glad to see you so willing to support SEES again."
And it's here that she lifts those papers, setting them on the countertop.
"Since you've clearly decided to walk back your decision to leave, I've taken the liberty to fill out your re-registration forms for Gekkoukan. All you need to do is sign; everything else has been handled."
She slides the papers over. And, conveniently, a second later --
A pen sets down right on top of it. She's prepared for everything!
"Bringing you back in to SEES will be a little more complex, of course. I imagine Ikutsuki-san will want you to take a physical just in case, and I feel the same. But once that is settled, it'll be good to welcome you back to the team."
Is she unilaterally deciding to enlist Shinjiro back into the fold?
Why yes, she is.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
As Mitsuru orders a ramen in... her special way, Shinjiro grimaces. Well, at least she's giving the boss some money. But as she shifts in her seat, not asking but declaring that he threw himself back into things, will rejoin school, and will rejoin SEES... he frowns as he takes those papers. Half of it is guilt, clearly writ on his face. The other half is frustration in the way he tenses his body.
"I'm not 'back into things'. It was a one-time thing." He's lying to himself, clearly, since he went to the point of getting an Evoker and everything, but he's not *trying* to lie to Mitsuru. "I just wanted to make sure that girl got saved. She did, and then Kawase did too, so it's fine."
A pause. "How are they holding up?"
Though, after the show of care towards two girls he doesn't really know, he finally looks down at the paperwork he took, flipping through it to see *just* how thoroughly it was filled out. "I'm not signing this. It's fine."
It's not fine. Nothing seems fine with him, lately. For one, he may be in good *physical fitness*, but he's not in good health. There's a certain amount of raggedness to him, a certain amount of gauntness, and it becomes clear as he stifles a cough, clearly trying not to show blood and weakness to the shark in his midst. She might remember that he coughed up blood during the fight with the Emperor and Empress, too... but wasn't that just from his injuries?
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
Dark red eyes tilt just fractionally as Mitsuru peers at Shinjiro from the corner of her gaze. She knows what's coming. They've fought too many battles together for her -not- to know how the ever-headstrong Shinjiro would react to her matter-of-fact approach.
But that's part of the point too. Mitsuru doesn't enter any battlefield without a strategy. And this cozy ramen shop -is- her battlefield today. To achieve victory over a persistently difficult foe.
She's expecting something a bit more forceful; so when she gets what looks like the expected frustration combined with the... not unanticipated, but unpleasantly familiar guilt, well. It makes Mitsuru pause in her bold blitz. Her brow wrinkles with a consternated crease; her lips purse; and finally, she glances askance if only for a brief moment. He's not 'back into things', he says, and she scoffs. But she can circle back to that later. For now...
"They're both recovering. They managed surprisingly well." She is about to say 'it could have been much worse,' but cuts herself off with a brief flash of irritation. "... I plan on visiting them both. But it would do them better to see their peers -- ah, their friends, first."
Because when Mitsuru visits, it'll inevitably bring the awkwardness of the pitch. They -both- have a talent SEES -desperately- needs right now. So she waits. And besides...
It's fine.
"No, it is not."
... she has a bigger hurdle to cross right now.
"It's not 'fine,' Aragaki. Nor is this about Yamagishi or Kawase. Look at you. You're living on the street. You're clearly unwell," she says firmly -- sternly, as Shinjiro flips through those forms to find them -FILLED OUT WITH DISTRESSING THOROUGHNESS-. Like, 'I'm concerned the surveillance state has come and its name is Mitsuru Kirijo' levels of distressing. Like -any normal human being might consider the amount of information she has on Shinjiro to fill out that form top to bottom an invasion of privacy maybe- levels of distressing.
But that's a problem for later, considering she presses on with her point, unwilling - unable - to let him pivot to another subject. The way she talks, she sounds like she might be going for a sympathy angle at first. And she is, legitimately, concerned about him. She doesn't have to do research to know that he is visibly in extremely poor health, and it makes her wonder just how much of what happened that day was due to his injuries sustained during -that- fight. But--
"... And yet despite all that, despite your situation, you -still- managed to come to our aid, -twice-. You managed to acquire an -Evoker- to do so." There's an obvious question there; one that she, perhaps fortunately, does not press -- yet. Instead, she continues on, her narrow-eyed gaze sharp and unyielding as steel as she turns to look at Shinjiro directly.
"Tell me what exactly, among all those things, constitutes one-time."
She could choose sympathy. She chooses the route she believes will get cut to the heart of the matter, instead.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"I'm glad," Shinjiro says about their recovery, as he reads over the paperwork. Each page he flips causes a deeper rise of a brow. "What the hell."
But, Mitsuru hits him harder. "I'm fine," he lies through his teeth. He knows he's not fine, but he can't just go 'sorry kirijo I'm dying of self-inflicted organ failure throughout my body, so you should give up on me'. "How did you get all of this?" He tries to deflect, but it's an easy one to brush aside. He's still holding on. At least...
Until she presses. He grits his teeth, guilt rising in tandem with the frustration. Even so, he doesn't get angry. He's *not* angry, just annoyed that she's got his number so well.
"...look. You don't want me back. It'd fuck up your squad. It'd fuck up your cohesion. Hell, do you really want another incident to happen, with so many more members that could get hurt?" He's not threatening her.
"Another situation like Amada? Someone like me can't be on a team or in a school."
No, he's committing emotional self-harm, instead, as a method of deflection. He can't answer her question head-on, so he has to remind her exactly why he left. Maybe that's what he's been doing, with the street, with his health, with refusing to rejoin. Just a form of self-punishment for a 'crime' that quite possibly could be debated in his exact culpability.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
How did she get all this?
"I assigned a personal retinue of ninja to investigate you," Mitsuru Kirijo says dismissively, which must be how she chooses to brush it off as an unserious question,
because how could something
so absurd
be real
At the very least, she does not let it deter her from pressing her offensive. The opening move has worked, and she finally sees a path towards a checkmate that has long eluded her. As a proper Kirijo, she does not hesitate when victory is in sight. She tees up her counter, and as Shinjiro attempts to beg out of his own necessity, the student council president leans forward in her seat, royal red tresses spilling over one eye as that sharp stare narrows.
It'd fuck up your squad. It'd fuck up your cohesion.
"Ça suffit!" she interjects, intent, in the way of all arguments, to just talk -over- what she sees as the beginnings of a weak argument. "Do you take me for a fool, Aragaki? I know what this squad needs. I know what you need! And it isn't to wallow in a gutter--"
Hell, do you really want another incident to happen, with so many more members that could get hurt?
Another situation like Amada?
And then, eyes wide, the normally poised student council president recoils as if struck.
It's instant and grimly remarkable, the way the simple invocation of a name can so swiftly stop an unstoppable force. Mitsuru draws back, fair features paling. "I--" she begins, but all that follows is a brief, choked sound before her eyes squeeze shut and her jaw clenches and her head turns, a veil of royal red presented to Shinjiro as the Kirijo heiress draws inward on herself in the face of her greatest failure.
Five seconds pass in tense silence like that, with only the sound and scents of bubbling ramen to fill the empty space.
"I apologize," she says suddenly yet meaningfully, her voice layered with regret, her features beset with a pained expression. "I know this is my fault. All of this. It could have all been avoided if I had simply..."
Simply what? The answer, to Mitsuru, is obvious:
'Simply been better.'
She bites back the words, and draws in a slow breath.
"I owe you a debt for my mistakes that cannot be repaid, Aragaki. I should have never gotten you or Akihiko involved, in any of this." Dark red eyes affix to the countertop for a few brief moments. And slowly, she draws a breath.
"... But I did get you involved. And I don't think you can look away from it. We have so many new members of SEES, and so many of them are still so inexperienced -- still have no idea what they've signed up for. I can't account for all of them." As much as she very clearly wants to. Even Mitsuru knows her limitations. ... Debatably. "They need someone like you there, Aragaki. Someone to who has your experience. Someone who..." She hesitates for a moment. "... knows how serious this is."
A frown settles on her lips. Shaken but unbowed, that unyielding gaze returns to Shinjiro once more.
"At the very least, you deserve a roof over your head, proper medical care and an education to secure your future with if you plan to continue recklessly risking your life for us."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro snorts, which means he did not believe her. Ninjas are gone, aren't they?
But, Mitsuru almost gets her victory. Almost. As she interrupts, he keeps going. He knows his point is one that works.
As she reacts so *strongly*, however, Shinjiro can't help but frown. It hurt to see her like that, even if they were never as close as him and Akihiko. He considered her a friend. No, no past tense - she is a friend, just not one he can be around.
As Mitsuru apologizes, telling him she owes a debt, that he has to be there... "Bullshit."
At first, it's unclear what he's saying. Is he calling her argument bullshit? The fact they need him? Or...
"Bullshit! How can this be your fault? It's not her blood on *your* hands."
Food is finally served. The ramen chef *then disappears* for a smoke break, not wanting to hear any more of this.
Shinjiro nods at him as he leaves, looking over his food. Usually he doesn't let it cool that much, but right now... "Castor went out of control. It was me who killed her, Kirijo. And getting us involved? I chose to be with Aki. I chose to be there, and look what it's gotten everyone. Death, guilt and burdens."
"If I rejoin, act like nothing happened, all I'm doing is burdening you with all my fucked up bullshit until it happens again or I die. I made this bed, I have to lie in it."
Shinjiro's emotions are clear, in that one word: burden. He can't rejoin because he hasn't uncoupled his responsibility with *how it affects Akihiko and Mitsuru*. Even now, he's still thinking about them - unhealthy as it is. "I'm sorry."
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
Bullshit.
Mitsuru blinks. "In what way is that possibly--"
But no. There's only one thing that refutation could be about, isn't there?
"..."
In what way could this be her fault?
Mitsuru Kirijo spent an unhealthy amount of time in the aftermath of what happened where she has dwelt on just that question, and she has come up with countless, countless would have, could have, should haves of possibilities that lay the ultimate blame for that day on her own failings. There are so many ways she could answer.
She should have paid more attention to the health of her team mates.
She should not have pushed them so hard, against such hopeless obstacles.
She should have done a check of the area before their patrol.
She should have been faster.
She should have thought quicker.
She should have have not been so weak--
But today, eyes lidded and focused upon the lazy swim of noodles sloshing back and forth in her steaming bowl of ramen, she settles on a simple one:
"I was the leader," she says, voice carefully cultivated and restrained to keep any quaver of emotion from reaching her vocal cords,
"... The onus lies squarely on me."
Their mistakes can only happen if she fails to correctly account for them. If she doesn't protect them.
... Their failings are her failings.
I'm sorry, Shinjiro ultimately settles the matter with those two simple words. And for a long time after, Mitsuru says nothing. She turns to her bowl of ramen, uncertain the proper etiquette for indulging in such a meal, in such a please. She remembers, vaguely, talk of slurping. Before, she would have asked -- but the chef isn't here, and Shinjiro...
...
She takes her first, slurping bite of those rich, soy-tinged noodles.
... It's one of the most delicious things she has had in recent memory. So this is ramen, is it--?
She indulges in quiet, leaving Shinjiro to his thoughts as she is left to hers. It's maybe five minutes in, until her voice cuts in once more, strained but direct, between eating her meal.
"... Time doesn't stop, Aragaki," she begins, gaze focused on her bowl, hands layered together over top of each other. "And doesn't afford us the luxury of dwelling. We can only move forward with it. You can use what happened for good, to the benefit of others in similar circumstances as yourself, and make a better future for yourself in the process... or you can deny them, and deny yourself. But you cannot keep up as you are. The answer to me is an obvious one. So..."
Mitsuru calmly picks up her utensils once more, years upon years of formal training helping her to maintain that cool composure she so desperately needs right now.
"I don't accept your apology," she says simply, matter-of-factly. "Because this isn't over."
And with that, she returns to her ramen, jaw set and expression steeled.
"You can offer it again once you are back in the dorms."
No matter how many times she needs to do this.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro listens to Mitsuru. She was the leader... As she tries her ramen (he doesn't comment on slurping, either way), he takes a breath. It's a little ragged.
He eats as she does so, thinking. She has responsibility, sure. But she didn't kill Amada. Squarely on her? That's taking away *his* responsibility for quite literally ending a life, one of the worst crimes you can commit.
But, when Mitsuru speaks... he listens. He grits his teeth.
What she doesn't know... is that he already lost his future. He can't come back from that. There's no cure in the world that he knows of that can save him from the punishment he's inflicted on himself. To move forward, back, or not at all... what does it matter? As she said...
He can't keep up as he is.
Making an affirmative noise, Shinjiro goes back to his ramen, unwilling to address words said so simply. He'll likely finish his food first, money on the counter, with slightly extra to account for the disturbance. And then, without saying another word, he'll leave. This may not be over... but tonight, no one wins.