2025-08-16: Of Crime and Beef Bowls
- Log: Of Crime and Beef Bowls
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Mio Kazama
- Where:Hirasaka Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: August 16, 2025
- IC Date: June 26, 2012
- Summary: Questionable nun Mio encounters Tsubasa doing illegal graffito, and chases them down to answer for their crimes with beef bentos. And to talk about trauma.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Having had enough of the glitz of Aoba, Tsubasa's drifted back home to Hirasaka Ward. That's not to say they can't match the artistic flair of Aoba out here, though: they just happen to match it with spray cans.
Tonight, they've pulled out their stencils and their spray cans to go tag Hirasaka, with a twist: the roses they're spraying onto the buildings have bright, shining orange petals, courtesy the very nice can of orange spray paint Masao gave them recently. They've got a duffel bag over one shoulder to carry their gear, and a dog loping behind them as they move around the district.
Of course, for some of their angles, they need to break in; right now, they've knelt in front of a security gate locking away a side exit, working at it with some thin metal tools in order to gain entry without the proper key.
That's a crime!
(The graffiti is also a crime.)
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
- ~brmmmm putt putt putt vrmmmmm~*
That's the noise of a small and round Bespa scooter, putting and scooting up the street. What an absolutely awful run of luck. Who has business here at this time?! Rude as hell, that's what this all is. An unusual sight soon crests into view, coming up the street. A bright teal scooter is carrying a young woman who still has one foot in teenager-hood, and she is wearing a full navy nun's habit. The hood is pulled down, and she's not really going fast enough for her hair to billow in the wind or whatever.
To boot, she's also kind of singing as she goes. "o/~I will never forget your warmth, and your earnest eyes, tha--o/~"
The scooter slows to a halt in the middle of the street, and the mystery nun perches on top of her seat, looking directly at the person trying to break into that gate. Her phone continues to play the song tinnily in the background silence that ensues.
"Awawa? Hello, are you having trouble getting home?" Mio calls pleasantly, as if nothing untowards were going on. Maybe in her mind, nothing untowards -is- going on.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
There's the sound of an engine, and Tsubasa swears, quickly shoving their lockpicking kit back in their bag and straightening up. Unfortunately, they're still not perfect at that, which means that the nun has time to slow to a halt before --
-- Tsubasa bolts down the street and hooks left into an alley.
NOT TODAY, COP!
(What? She's not a cop? Oh, no, Tsubasa definitely didn't look behind them to figure out who would be asking them why they were breaking into a joint. You just assume that's a cop by default, man.)
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
"H--hey, it's okay! Hold on a second!! I'm here to help!!!" Mio cups her hands and calls louder, alarmed at the mysterious and sudden departure that her arrival seems to have caused. Of course, someone fiddling with a lock is probably up to no good, but consider this: what if said someone is in dire need of help, forcing them into such a situation? It's possible! She's been there, herself!!
Which is why the nun quickly hauls back on the throttle and the scooter jumps the kerb with a minimum of fuss, skidding over a flattened cardboard box and taking down the alleyway after Tsubasa! Noisy and goofy as it that mode of travel may get a rap for, it's a lot quicker than one's feet.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa can outrun a cop.
Tsubasa cannot outrun a cop on a scooter.
They lead Mio on a merry chase through the backstreets for a good five minutes, though; she'll note that their dog ran off in the other direction, too. (It's fine, she was trained to do that.)
Finally, though, Tsubasa...
... just kind of collapses on the stairs of a fire escape. "Fuck... man... cops with wheels... fuck's the world... comin' to..."
They look up at their upcoming doom.
They squint through the glare of the headlights.
They shade their blue eyes from the headlights to try and see through them better.
They...
"Okay, the fuck's a cop nun?"
They might need a minute.
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
[ESPIRIT DE CORPS] - Medium: Somewhere, in a police station on the other side of town, Police Detective Katsuya Suou feels a shiver running down his spine as someone mistakes the #1 suspicious fake-ass nun for a member of the force.
For one, Mio is more adroit atop the little scooter than your average bible-beater likely is, knowing how to throw one's weight around to navigate around tight corners and even ramp up stairs and shit. Not fair. But then, is life very fair??? We focus now at the ominous glare of headlights, punctuated by the not-very-ominous *brmmm putt putt putt butt butt puttz puttz* of a 2-stroke engine... which goes silent as the lady on the scooter turns it off.
There's a bag of shopping tucked inside a parcel carrier on the back. This nun pulls a can of coffee from it and holds it out in greeting.
"Hello there! I'm not a police officer," THINGS A COP WOULD PROBABLY SAY BUT ANYWAY "I work at Saint Bernadette's Cathedral and I was going to ask if you needed help...?"
The tinny jpop is still going on your phone, Mio. People are gonna know you're cringe and like sugary sad stuff from the late 1990's. It's freaking over for you.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa's face screws up. They peer harder.
"Uh. Did I, like... hit my head again. Is this the shit I see before I end up on one of those machines for the rest of my life."
Experimentally, they pinch their arm.
"Well, I ain't dreamin'... yeah, it's gotta be the head thing."
They heft themself up by the railing of the stairwell, ambling over. "You're like... seriously a nun. This isn't, like, a Shinjuku thing, right?" Tsubasa is still entirely too sceptical. "Like, no shade if that's the deal, but, uh..."
This is probably the weirdest pre-death brain trip they've ever been through. (WHY DO YOU HAVE COMPARISONS FOR THAT, TSUBASA.)
Tsubasa rubs at the back of their neck, looking over Mio's bike. "Uh... nah, I'm good. Immortal soul's... fine, I guess? We cool?"
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Mio is pretty patiently waiting behind the handlebars of her sick ride, and the only motion she makes is to kick the stand down so she can stop wasting energy and mental overhead on keeping it balanced. It makes a little scratchy sound on the concrete. A gust of wind billows her habit, and she squints into the breeze.
"Er... yes, I am an employee of the Church there, but maybe not all that serious if you wanted to get into the ..." Mio teeters to and fro atop her scooter, letting that thought trail off before too much is given away. "Wait!" she slaps her own cheeks in shock, somehow while still holding a can of Hog Coffee, the premiere brand of canned coffee for budget-minded students and salarypeople who haven't quite got the whole 'salary' thing really figured out yet.
"I swear I'm not tryin' to preach! I'm serious about asking if you need something to eat or a safe place to sleep!" she bonks the handlebars with her hands, as if to punctuate that she really means it! She's trying hard!! "Or if you're okay! And that I don't care if you were tryin' to break into that place because they probably had it coming anyway!"
A clod of dirt falls off of the scooter's back wheel as if nature itself had given up on ever hearing sense out of this idiot.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"H--hey!!" Tsubasa turns to Mio, sharply, waving their hands in a 'hold it' gesture. "C'mon, not so loud!"
If she goes hollering about their breaking and entering, they really WILL have to run from a cop! And their stamina bar needs WAY more time to recharge!!
"Look, I was just -- taggin' shit, see?" They fish one of their cans of paint out of their bag, demonstratively. "There's awnin' access in that buildin', so I can get up onto the second level and do shit there... that's how it is."
Is it, like, sacrilegious to pray to God that this chick isn't secretly really a cop nun while she's standing right here in her full God getup? Asking for a friend.
They glance down at themself, though, awkwardly, as they realise...
... maybe she recognised them from one of those charities they hit up week to week for shit like bread and milk and butter. Y'know. All the shit it's hard to shoplift from convenience stores?
"N-no, man," they stammer, a little, as they rub at the back of their neck, "I got a place, it's cool."
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
There's a look of dawning realization in Mio's eyes--which you'd hope there would be, given that it was just explained to her very plainly. "Oh," she has a little energetic grin and has for now, thankfully, stopped hollering quite so loudly. "I like street art! Don't worry, don't worry."
If Tsubasa isn't shy about getting around Aoba Ward for a food parcel, then there's a good chance they might recognize Mio, in time, though she does usually have her hood up when helping out. For reference: Saint Bernadette's is kind of a small cathedral and doesn't seem to have many people working at it, and the head dude kinda looks like Nicholas D. Wolfwood so you know he's probably spending the collection plate on whiskey, but they DO actually work quite hard at doing good charity (to make up for being suckass at actually providing religious services).
Which is to say, yeah, Tsubasa has probably scored a sweet batch of bagels or something from the Church before. Hell yeah.
Anyway. Tsubasa assures Mio that they're not homeless and the nun-lady looks relieved, hand to her chest. "Oh, okay. I mean--I'm glad! But if you do ... have to, you know, ask for help sometimes, our door's always open there. We don't mind! Um." she pauses to consider.
"I'm sorry. I probably startled the shit outta you. I'm not very good at this stuff!"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"You do? It ain't like, a 'sin' or some shit? I don't, uh... know foreign shit that good, so I dunno if it's a big thing or anythin'..." Look, Tsubasa only recently learned that the treatment of Koreans is a whole Thing and not just some words their dad would use while ranting when the news was on. They're entirely ready to believe they've committed a God Crime against Catholicism too.
Conveniently, Tsubasa goes to Aoba Ward all the time! It's nice up there. Upscale without making them feel like they're going to disappear if they round the wrong corner. Good opportunities for... discounts. And bagels!
(The tragic fact is, when you're poor, you end up spending a lot more time getting what you need.)
"Yeah, I know," Tsubasa says, before they backtrack to say, "I-I mean, I got it!" Because this is totally new information and not something they're already exploiting for their survival. Man, it would be embarrassing if they were, huh?
"But nah, it's cool," they shake their head, leaning on the wall. "Sorry I bolted on ya. It's, uh... y'know, only people what ask me that when I'm taggin' shit's the cops, mostly. Not that they ever do nothin', really, but it's a pain if I get took in... sometimes they ring my father." For some reason, this is something they frown deeply about, though it's a little harder to tell on account of the lack of eyebrows. (They have makeup, instead. It's blue and white instead of any logical colour.)
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Again, Mio looks heartened that Tsubasa is relaxing a little and not preparing to bolt in fear! She feels a little less like a total screwup at what is *meant* to be her legal, primary gig. She also briefly curses herself, silently, for swearing and breaking character. Fool!
Anyway, she goes to truly break bread by crossing the distance between them to at least hand Tsubasa a drink, or at the very least, leave that offering there if wanted. "I don't think graffiti is a sin. Or if it is, um, nobody's put it in any books I've read."
Contemplating for a moment, the lilac-haired one then nods her head and holds one finger aloft. "Apology accepted! Not... that you need to. I was kinda startled and just called out, too. And I promise I won't tell anyone I saw anything! It's none of my business, I just... I want to help, you know?"
At close range, and with her speaking mannerisms and all, it's obvious she's a lot more young than perhaps it might have been first assumed from the outfit. "What's your name, friend? I'm Mio! Mio Kazama. You can come ask for me at the Church anytime if someone's bullying you, and I'll sort them out!" she beams proudly. Only by the grace of God, and a strong willpower, does she resist flashing a V for Victory, instead inclining her head respectfully. There's some contradiction going on about this character...
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
It's cool, swearing helps put Tsubasa at ease. That makes them less likely to bolt. See? Logic.
They blink as she comes over to hand them a can of coffee. "Uh, thanks?" They finally accept it, having apparently at least provisionally accepted that this isn't a death fever dream, or at least have accepted their death gracefully enough to go along with it.
She just wants to help, though, huh...
"Name's Tsubasa Seki," they state, in turn. "I... got my own ways of dealin' with people what talk shit, but thanks." For a moment, they weigh their pride against this girl's (not a woman???? They let kids into the nun army??????) desire to Do Good, brooding silently about it.
Man, it's embarrassing, but... "... don't worry about it, y'know? You guys, uh... already help me out. Uh... like... I... raid your pantry on the reg, so..." They can't quite meet her eyes when admitting that, but they at least get over themself long enough to do so.
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Tsubasa admits to regularly partaking of the food parcels, so to speak, and the young lady in the habit just grins wider. At this sign of acceptance between them, the floodgates of energy... open: "Oh, that's okay! Everyone's gotta eat, and this city's real hard to get by in, sometimes. Hey, hey, you want a bento? I work at a 24-7 some evenings and we've always got stuff we've gotta sticker as it gets close to expiring, but the salarymen always come in at 6-7 looking for a bargain, so I put 'em to one side to save for folks who need it, I've got two in my bag, and..."
In any traditional console scene of this playing out, sunshiney rays of excitement would be blazing out of Mio's head as she gets carried away with herself. And then she straightens her head, realizing she's nervously-excitedly gabbing nonstop.
"--and I mean, anyway, sorry, sorry, I keep doing this. I get really into the giving-back part of this job. I should probably let ya get back to it, I don't wanna get you in trouble or anything." she course-corrects with more nervous, smiley energy.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Who... enjoys charity this much?
(Tsubasa's Devil Arcana, they just, ontologically don't comprehend giving over taking.)
... like, she seems like a nice person, but man, maybe she could use some of mom's pills.
Tsubasa doesn't have any of that shit, though, because they're pretty sure the Death Boss would kick their ass even if pills aren't cigarettes. So instead, they shrug, ambling over to go sit on the stairwell again. "Uh, you seem kinda wound up," they point out, as they plant their ass.
"Said you nabbed two bentos, yeah? Sure. Siddown, let's eat."
Ha ha! Now TSUBASA is asking Mio to break bread with THEM! They're using her own tricks against her!!
Absolutely flummoxed. Tsubasa controls the pace of the conversation with ease, playing the nervous do-gooder's energy against them! But, like a cat, the uncontrollable ray of sunshine seems to recover almost instantly after the decision is made.
Mio drags her scooter over closer, rather than make trips to and fro, and pops open the parcel carrier on the back. From the shopping bag within, she snatches two discounted Mega Eats Beef Bowl & Egg bentos, the kind that have chopsticks taped to the bottom and all that, and excitedly bounds over to the steps. She hands one over with a face full of joy, as if having accomplished a great deed this day.
"I do get kinda wound up when I'm doing this stuff. It means a lot to me! I'd be toast if it weren't for people's charity, so, like... paying it forward feels really good."
With that, she takes a seat on a step and produces her own bottle of green tea from somewhere in those robes. "But I'm still new at it, too, so then it's like: damn, maybe I'm getting carried away and spooking people who've been burned before..."
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Absolutely flummoxed. Tsubasa controls the pace of the conversation with ease, playing the nervous do-gooder's energy against them! But, like a cat, the uncontrollable ray of sunshine seems to recover almost instantly after the decision is made.
Mio drags her scooter over closer, rather than make trips to and fro, and pops open the parcel carrier on the back. From the shopping bag within, she snatches two discounted Mega Eats Beef Bowl & Egg bentos, the kind that have chopsticks taped to the bottom and all that, and excitedly bounds over to the steps. She hands one over with a face full of joy, as if having accomplished a great deed this day.
"I do get kinda wound up when I'm doing this stuff. It means a lot to me! I'd be toast if it weren't for people's charity, so, like... paying it forward feels really good."
With that, she takes a seat on a step and produces her own bottle of green tea from somewhere in those robes. "But I'm still new at it, too, so then it's like: damn, maybe I'm getting carried away and spooking people who've been burned before..."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Thanks," Tsubasa says, when she hands it over. ... it's a pretty good bowl. These ones are hard to jack, too, so they usually end up having to scrounge up cash to buy them if they want them... which is, yeah, way easier at the end of the day.
(Tsubasa has never heard of the cases of getting food poisoning from these things at the end of the day, tragically. They probably wouldn't be able to care that much even if they had, though.)
They balance the bowl on their knees as they crack the chopsticks, cri-crak!, as they're listening to Mio's thoughts. Yeah, she's...
"You're pretty earnest," Tsubasa decides to talk out loud instead of thinking about it. "I can tell you're not talkin' shit about this all bein' big to you or whatever, so... it's cool. Ain't a crime to be into shit. Not even if the shit you're super into is trains, though, uh, I ain't listenin' to that. ... nothin' personal on that one." Maybe Tsubasa just resents the fact they need trains to get around instead of having a cool bike.
Maybe.
"Still... cool you're in a position to do it instead of need it now." Yeah, Tsubasa caught that. "Y'know, uh... you're doin' a good job." Shit, that sounds so awkward, but this girl super kind of sounds like she needs a pat on the back right around now. (The fact that Tsubasa thinks of reassuring her as a 'pat on the back' is all the audience really needs to understand just how ill-suited they are to the task.)
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
The scooter, sitting a few paces away and having a well-earned rest, somehow looks smug with satisfaction at being referred to as 'cool'. Mio is sitting more upright than slouching as she has an early dinner with a relative stranger, which also *feels* like something authentic you should do if you have a mission to serve the public in some sense. It's a lot easier to grasp ahold of something simple like this--sharing food with the hungry--and see the immediate benefits. As opposed to the need that burns deeper in her soul to grasp the bones and foundations of this vile, broken, patriarchal, uncaring world and squeeze and twist until something better results.
"Haha~, I get that a lot... being earnest, that is. I don't know how to lie about some things, you know? The stuff I'm really passionate about. It just tumbles out." Mio grins a third time tonight, looking more munchkin and less graceful bearer of the cloth by the minute. It does bear wondering what she might be good at lying about, though, as that's apparently a separate category.
Even if Tsubasa just offered a pat on the back and nothing more, it seems like it'd be well received. "I should thank you for giving me a second chance to talk, too! After I chased you down and all..." Mio looks down at her bento for a moment, as if the answer to the world's questions lies within the beef and rice. "I think it must have taken a lot of courage not to fight. I think I would have thrown something, if our places were switched."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa spends a few moments shovelling beef bowl into their mouth, and in the span of that silence Mio can tell they're not just humouring her. This youth absolutely hasn't had anything more substantive than a pilfered chocolate bar since lunch.
They're at least still listening to her, though. "Mm-hm, mm-hm," they add, to suggest that, mouth quite full.
"I ain't with the gang or nothin'," Tsubasa shakes their head, "so it's smarter to run. 'Specially since... uh, hit my head the other day, doc said I shouldn't do it twice in a row too quick or I'd be hella fucked. Uh, not that I don't do a bunch of stupid shit, like, daily, but..." Well, that explains why they were wondering whether they'd hit their head earlier.
They shrug a shoulder. "Anyway, it's cool to know what you want and who you're worried about when you're gettin' it. Like, there are people what go their whole lives not knowin' what they're really about... or bein' too scared to say it out loud, or even to themselves, y'know? But you gotta have somethin' you want. That's just part of bein' human. Seems like what you want is to help people... and it don't seem like a shallow desire or nothin'. That's cool."
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Mio pauses with her cheeks comically full, listening whole-heartedly to Tsubasa as that's the only way she knows how to do most things. Anyone watching could be forgiven for thinking that either the topic or the delivery were going over her head until she swallows, complete with cartoony 'gloomp' sound effect, and gestures excitedly with her chopsticks.
"That's exactly right, Tsubasa-san! I didn't know that--what I really wanted, or what I cared about, and was too scared to say it out loud..." she recounts this truth aloud, glancing up to the sky as she thinks through it. Slightly too-wide eyes look up at the luminous half-moon. "That's a very wise thing to say... you're clever!" by the time Mio looks back down again, her pupils are all normal. More to the point, her expression smoothly flows into a compassionate frown of worry.
"But hold on a moment! If you have a concussion, you should be lying down..." she begins to puff her cheeks out. A perfect cinnamon roll of concern. Too honest, too pure. Like someone wearing a mask, or someone who's learned to take theirs off. "Hmm. Hrrrrrmmrrrm."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"No, dude, it's cool," Tsubasa shakes their head. "It was last week, uh -- remember the shit what went down in Kasugayama? Like... that." Technically, the news reported it wrong, but a cursory understanding of 'a big attack on the school' is probably good enough.
Then they eat some more noodles, either to prove the point that they're fine or because they're a little worried Mio's going to cart them off to hospital and they won't get to eat their goddamn noodles.
Nomph. "... hey, don't go spreadin' that shit around, though," Tsubasa says, grabbing some more noodles in their chopsticks. "School is a pain in the ass, so I'd rather just be lazy... it's easier if people just think I'm a dumbass."
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
There's a couple moments more where it isn't clear if Tsubasa can safely escape the withering glare of this overbearing young clergywoman(?), but then the smile returns to her face and she sits back. "Okay. I'll trust you then." there's more confidence in that statement than was showing a few minutes ago, that's for sure. "And I'll keep your secret, too! Despite this outfit, I'm a terrible preacher, so..."
Mio leaves the chopsticks in her mouth, thinking aloud. "I heard about what happened to the school there, you know? That it got really violent... that there were strange things going on, more than just yankees and punks trying to maim each other. Wish I hadn't been busy that day... could'a helped with something there..." and sighs, shaking her head. The thought of Tsubasa's injury draws her back into the present, sharply.
"Did someone attack you, or did a bomb go off, or... how did you get hurt, that day?" she asks, genuinely curious.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"What, for real?" Tsubasa seems honestly kind of taken aback by a stranger deciding to trust them like that. "Uh, cool."
They shrug, though, as they look down at their bowl. "Long story..." They hedge, for a moment. But, in the end, "... it weren't just a gang or nothin'. Like, shit, I run in a Cuss High gang, we ain't -- that ain't how we do shit there. It was... uh, the Joker Killer and his crew. All these people in weird costumes, like... this chick with cat ears what wanted to claw my eyes out. Freaky shit."
Tsubasa just kind of lets that hang there, for a moment, chewing at their lip. "He was there to rub out the Death Boss... one of the chicks with him, this hellish gothic lolita, she put her axe straight through a kid's stomach. Threw a chair at her, and she just straight cut it in half... but then they were throwin', like, Molotovs or some shit, and I -- couldn't deal."
It's a bit hard to tell, in the dark, but Mio might be able to tell with them both sitting in the stairwell -- how Tsubasa's skin is textured differently on one side of their body, covered up with concealer alongside their fake tan.
You know. Massive burn scarring.
"Anyway, me and Jun-kun, we tried to get the kid out... I mean, I was just carryin' 'im, I didn't know shit what to do with that much blood... but then this guy, Jun-kun told me later he's Suou-san, though I guess I didn't see him like, entirely clearly but it's not like there was room for lots of different people to pile down the stairs? Right? So he attacked him and I kicked him and fell on my ass and hit my head 'cause I was still carryin' the dude and couldn't catch myself. So between that and the burns I copped on my back tryin' to keep this kid from burnin' alive while he was bleedin' to death, uh... they carted me off to hospital too."
Tsubasa pauses.
"Oh, and, uh, there was an explosion. Dunno what it was... news said it was a makeshift explosive, but news didn't mention the Joker Killer, either. Tch, Dr. Inoue told me I was just crazy when I brought him up, too..."
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Mio's eating motions slow to a gradual stop as she listens with painful, clear-eyed clarity, to every last detail Tsubasa is giving. No matter how much it might sound like crazy nonsense to the ostensible layperson. Which she, admittedly, is not. All of the nervous excitement has bled out of her, replaced with a painful regret. She lays both chopsticks on her bowl and adjusts her feet to be flat on the ground.
"Tsubasa-san, that story would sound crazy to most people, yes... but not to me." maybe she's reached a point of hyperfixated calm, or something. "It's terrible. It's terrifying, and awful, but I don't believe a word of it is a lie." the now-confirmed oddest nun in the country looks sidelong to Tsubasa while speaking. She would have failed her Knowledge (Medical) check if they didn't confirm their burns aloud for her.
"You believe what you saw, right?" Mio asks gently, as if trying to feel something out about this encounter. "Because I think you should. Even if it's scary as hell."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Oh, those burns definitely aren't from a week ago.
... fifth-degree burns don't patch up in a week like second-degree ones do.
"I..." They start, glancing aside and biting at the inside of their cheek. "Before I... talked to someone else who was there, I thought I musta been nuts. Like, it's totally insane, right? It don't... happen. Why was he screamin' like he was dyin' when Suou-san was just touchin' his face..."
Tsubasa trails off, their voice and gaze growing distant and disturbed, unsure even if 'Tatsuya' made contact with Jun's skin as they look back at it and suddenly feeling quite ill.
Mio may note, in this moment, that there's absolutely no spark of soul-recognition between the two of them, the way some Persona-Users are revealed to each other. They... don't have any Resonance at all.
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Mio Kazama is not exactly a paranormal sensory wunderkid, but from what little she's been able to glean about this shadowy underside of the world, she's not exactly normal in that sense, either. That there's no spark or recognition between the two is, well, understandable. She files it under something to remember later.
"Tsubasa-san, do you have a phone, or... access to a phone somewhere?" she asks. The unfiltered concern seems to give her strength, now. "If you do, I'd like to give you my number, and you can call it if you see something like that happening."
The nun or nun-adjacent or at least the concerned citizen who dresses in nun's fashion takes one last bite of rolled omelette with her chopsticks, having plucked them up again. "You aren't insane, there are just some really... weird things that happen sometimes."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"I mean, I'd heard all the rumours," Tsubasa says, softly. "But they were always, y'know... just rumours..."
They're really not equipped to handle it.
...
does that mean they tried to throw a chair at a murderous Persona-User despite having no powers beyond a sick tan
Luckily, Tsubasa doesn't know that word. They just know -- they're outclassed. Not strong enough. Weaker than whatever's out there. ... it's the kind of realisation that helps keep a person down, but that's the self-preservation instinct, isn't it?
A moment later, they blink, and shove their hand into their pocket. "Uh, yeah," they hit a few buttons, handing it over. "Here, put it in." Their phone is a few years out of date, but still perfectly serviceable, all in all.
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Mio looks down at the offered phone with a smile and deftly keys in her own number with a practiced ease. "I think... it would be nice if these kinds of things were only rumours. But I know they aren't... so." she saves the number under 'MYO (MIO)' and hands the phone back. I hope it's a flip-phone. Flip phone for life. "So if you're in danger, or scared, or starving, or... whatever. You can call that number."
How many masks does this young woman wear through the course of a conversation? From excited, to nervous, to whatever this is. Focused, I suppose. Calmed, perhaps, by the gravity of what's happened. And by what might still happen. "If you can trust a stranger who doesn't make a very good nun, but one who shared a meal with you, and believes you." the smile returns to her face, if a little smaller than before.
"Ah, you know, if I don't pick up, you should look up a place called The Cardboard Dragon. I do a lot of odd-jobs for the person that owns it. You could always run there and say I sent you!"
THATS RIGHT MYUNGHON YOU CAN PUT IT ON MY TAB GWAHAHAHA
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa takes the phone back, slipping it into their pocket. It might well be a flip phone! There's still plenty of them in style. "... thanks."
Man, it's still weird that someone would just... believe them like that. Tsubasa doesn't think Mio's lying, though.
They orient back to the present more, at least, when they hear a familiar phrase. "Uh, know the joint," Tsubasa says, and finds for the second time today that they really should have asked Myunghon what name to use with other people too. "They're cool," they settle on, instead, and just kind of hope that Mio's up to date on her pronoun usage.
And they get her to do odd jobs, huh... wait, does that mean they weren't trying to get them to do big-time crimes?
Uh, unless the odd jobs are drug running. The odd jobs might be drug running. ... like that one time Tsubasa almost fell into that trap before Ichika pointed out that those goons in Shibuya were obviously looking for drug mules instead of couriers. Man, dodged a bullet on that one.
Tsubasa shakes their head, and picks themself and their empty beef bowl up. "Reminds me, though... I'd better get goin' before it gets too late. Cool meetin' ya, though. Try not to get into your head too much about the shit you're doin'... you're alright."
They pause.
"Even if that music's, uh... kinda lame."
OH NO, THEY HEARD IT.
<Pose Tracker> Mio Kazama has posed.
Mio waves in a manner best left described as 'cute'. "Thank you for your time, Tsubasa-san, I hope that you have a pleasant evening!" she bows her head slightly in genuine thanks for their time together.
And then her taste in Heisei Jpop is attacked. Oh, she looks cool now, but a few hours later she'll be rolling around on the ground in front of the couch, kicking her legs and wailing. This, too, is justice.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
In the end, Tsubasa was a scorpion...!!
(... nah, worse: they're a metalhead who can't appreciate pop. You've all met teenagers like that; they think if something is catchy it isn't deep, and if it can be sung without hurting your voice it just isn't real enough.)
Despite their honest opinion on her music, though, Tsubasa lifts their hand in an easy wave. "Nah, I oughta thank you. Later, Kazama-san." Which might mean they'll... see her again...?!
... they wouldn't mind that.