2025-09-04: Safety
- Log: Safety
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Ichika Kawase
- Where: An abandoned building in Hirasaka Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: September 04, 2025
- IC Date: Fri Jul 06, 2012
- Summary: Ichika finds Tsubasa out where they might want to do a little vandalism. They talk.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa sent a message through to the group chat, on Wednesday morning, that they weren't feeling it and were ditching today. When Princess pressed them, they assured her they were cool, but...
They didn't show up at the gang's hangout after school, either.
Now, on Thursday, they've shown up, but they were pretty withdrawn throughout the school day; they even declined to skip afternoon classes, stating, again, that they were not feeling it.
It's not until late in the evening that Tsubasa messages Ichika, asks if she's free. If she wants to go hit up that abandoned office building they've been 'decorating'. But when she gets there...
Tsubasa's not decorating. No -- they're just kind of brooding, lodged in one of the windows they haven't yet smashed, one leg up and foot pressed against the opposite side as they slouch across a rather generous window ledge. Lance sits beside them, gnawing contentedly on a rawhide the gang threw in here for her. (Shuyo brought a whole bunch of them to toss around the usual haunts.)
... they at least have their bag of gear with them, duffel bag dumped on the floor. They must have had some intent to paint the walls.
Maybe they're just... still not feeling it.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika, on the other hand, did skip afternoon classes. She went out to Tokyo! And then she came back to discuss something with Hibari. The trip to Tokyo was nice... But Ichika still had her phone handy waiting for more contact from Tsubasa. She'd tried to give them some time to chill, but soon she was going to have to reach out.
Tsubasa beats her to it. So...
Ichika's back in her casual clothes, the skull top and cargo pants, and she's walking up the building's stairways until she reaches Tsubasa. She looks for a moment at Lance and Tsubasa both. Then...
Ichika trudges on forward. "Hey," she says. "What's up?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa's distracted at first; as Ichika gets closer, she'll spy the earbuds in their ears, leading to the runman stick tucked away in their pocket. (They're still in their uniform; they never bothered changing.)
Lance 'BOOF's happily as Ichika approaches, though, and that tips Tsubasa off; they switch off the visual kei blasting through the earphones and tuck the whole thing in their pocket, hiding that loud, angry music away as they swing their legs back down to the ground.
"Cool, you're here," they say, as they straighten up. "Thought we'd bomb the third floor tonight. I bought all the stencils and shit."
Is that really what's up?
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
BOOF. Ichika kneels down to pet Lance as she encourages her over. "Come here, girl," she asks. "Who's a good girl?"
Then she looks up at Tsubasa again, moves to stand back up. "Sounds good. But I'm surprised you haven't gotten started yet. You'd usually let me catch up."
A pause. "...You don't have to tell me what's on your mind," Ichika says. "But I think something's there.' She walks over, goes for the bag. "If you want though, we can talk while we go."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Lance looks up to Ichika, hanging off of her every word with an adoring gaze and a tail wagging her entire back half. Who??? Who's the good girl??????? SHE HAS TO KNOW
"Oh... yeah," Tsubasa shrugs, as they pick up their bag. "... wanted your view on how to style it. Like... you're the Boss."
Ichika pauses, though. "It's whatever," Tsubasa shrugs, and at least has the excuse of trundling up the stairs to avoid catching her eye. "Nothin' new. ... how was Tokyo?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Lance!! Ichika beams. "It's you!" she tells her.
But Tsubasa wanted her view.... That could make sense, of course. But, Ichika doesn't buy it. She does, however, follow along. Tsubasa can lead the way, it's fine. The rest, on the other hand?
"Great," Ichika says. "Ran into that guy you mentioned--Ryuji Sakamoto. ...He's cute," Ichika says. "I'm gonna wait and see if he asks me out. It's kinda funny, that girl I met who I went to Shujin about is a friend of him and Amamiya, too."
She can be patient. She doesn't immediately prod Tsubasa about how it's whatever. But it kind of lingers in the air.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
WHAAAAAAAAAAT. THIS IS AMAZING!!!!
(Lance of course translates this to, 'boof!')
"Yeah," Tsubasa nods. "He's got cool hair." They wouldn't have recommended bleach to Ichika if they didn't think it was a good look, apparently. "Huh, her too, though? Weird."
They pull out their stencils, once they come to the as-yet-untouched third floor. It's all very empty, right now, with no dividers up to separate out office spaces... and Tsubasa has noticed the way they're looking at one particular wall as they get up the stairs.
"Throw a giant-ass rose up there, you think?" They ask, approaching it. "I got the pieces all in here..."
They work on that relatively quietly, for a while, aside from asking Ichika for input on what to put where. They've got a big stencil of a blooming rose and some backing stencils devoted to twisting thorns, so they're able to spray down a whole tangled mess for people to see as soon as they come in.
"... guess I oughta be more careful," they shrug a shoulder, at some point there. "Since that cop said he'd be followin' up... but it's like, whatever. I don't care."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"He does," Ichika agrees. "It was funny--he was pretty nervous. But I don't mind a little nerves, you know? Shows he's invested."
Her too! "Yeah, it surprised me. It seemed more like, friend of a friend, but still. Small world." Pause. "Not that small, since I've been snooping and all, but..."
Very empty. "Giant-ass rose sounds great," Ichika says. "Let's put it right there. I'll help." She'll hand Tsubasa the cans, and so on. But she's quiet as they work, except to instruct now and then--thorns and rose...
"Yeah?" Ichika asks. "...Which cop is that? You run into more?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Oh, yeah?" Tsubasa wonders, when Ichika speaks warmly of nerves. "Huh. Makes sense."
Still, it's a small world... "... see, that's more of that reporter shit," Tsubasa points out, when Ichika says she's been snooping.
Ichika helps!! And it's very helpful, because Tsubasa only has two hands.
And, as it happens, the one braincell, which is still focused on the thing they're trying to pretend doesn't matter. "Nah -- uh -- Sergeant Suou?" Tsubasa shrugs, having apparently learned his actual rank. "It's stupid, like... it was actually kinda a favour, or whatever... but y'know, fuck that. Fuck the pigs."
Helpfully, they scrawl that in black spray paint across the wall.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Yep," Ichika confirms. "Confidence is good too, but a little nervousness is cute. Shows he cares enough to worry about it."
Reporter shit! Ichika thinks about that. "I guess you're right," she says. "Maybe I'm starting to..."
But, that one braincell. Sergeant Suou. So not just a nobody, either. At least, Ichika's pretty sure that's how the ranks work. "A favor?" Ichika wonders. "How's that?"
Fuck the pigs is a good general statement, but--
"Is it a thing like that one who's helping you out?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"... yeah. It's hard to care about shit. Pretty cool." Tsubasa, of course, is too cool to care about anything, especially anything that might have just happened.
They care about Ichika getting out, though. "Reckon it's like that," they say, when she advances that 'maybe'.
Still, they -- dumped it out, so --
"I guess," Tsubasa shrugs, squatting down to dig through their duffel bag. "It's, uh..."
Rustle, rustle. What are they looking for? Nothing in particular; it just gives them something to focus on that isn't Ichika. "There was this drunk cop," they say, without looking at her. "Doin' some police brutality, whatever -- I yanked him off Yeo-sama, but -- fuck had a gun. Actually fired it at Sergeant Suou when he got done tellin' us we were breakin' the law and went for him... uh, he missed, but I musta, like, blacked out or somethin'. Or... or it was some of that shit I ain't good enough to step to, like... one of the people that was with Yeo-sama said I had 'two minutes', and fuckin', two minutes to what, but it was about that long before most of 'em disappeared... 'cept Aragaki-san stuck around. 'Cuz'a me, prolly." Their gaze darkens, as they judge themself: "Stupid."
They shrug. "Anyway. Sergeant Suou was still there too, and then this new fuck, this, uh, Sergeant Ezoe showed up... he knew my father. They took us in... I dunno what happened to Aragaki-san, but... father was spittin' chips 'bout havin' to burn favours to get the charges dropped. Y'know. Assaultin' an officer or... whatever. He... like, he shook me like he wanted to take it out on me, but... he was mad he couldn't discipline me since the cops'd be followin' up with me later. So..."
Their throat isn't tight. Shut up.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Of course. Still, Ichika smiles at that thought--that maybe she's got something going for her. But... less smiley a subject is the next.
A drunk cop. Ichika frowns sharply, because that's not a great start to any story. He was messing with--
"Ugh," Ichika says. She can imagine why cops would give Myunghon Yeo trouble--and she doesn't like it. "Whoa. He had a gun--did he--" Fired it at Suou. Ichika blinks at that, surprised out of her irritation on Myunghon's part. But blacked out--ah. So it was around midnight.
"...I see." Aragaki was involved. Ichika's troubled about that one. She'll have to look into whether he got out OK or not. Not like there's anything she can do, but...
"Your dad's still an asshole," Ichika points out. "...But..."
They'll be following up.
"I see. So this Suou is looking out for you," Ichika puts together. "That's good."
"I don't trust the cops, but... I guess a couple of them can be OK."
Ichika looks over at Tsubasa. "Anything that stops your dad taking it out on you is pretty good in my book."
"Still... Fuck," she says. "They went for Yeo-san. And you stepped in. That's cool of you, even if it got you in trouble."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"... I was just gettin' in the way," Tsubasa says, as their legs finally give out and they just kinda thunk down on the ground properly. "Wasn't even thinkin'. Like, they said it was a crime and all I could say was, fuckin', I don't care, it didn't even matter... like if I stopped him from swingin' again it didn't even matter if they really sent me to a hall that time."
Juvenile hall, of course, is a place few delinquents ever go; Japan much prefers to keep children out of detention until they turn twenty. But... Tsubasa was already tried for a violent crime once.
They know their luck isn't infinite.
"But the gun came out and I didn't do shit. Couldn't even move... fuckin' coward."
They draw a knee up to their chest, looping their arms around it, loosely. "He was so pissed, man," and they're not talking about the cop, any more. "Hollerin' through the holdin' cell, draggin' me out... no one did shit. I even told Sergeant Suou he hit me before, no one did shit..."
They're not tearing up. Shut up.
"Like, he's an executive now, he's important, he can just... do what he wants, man... he was mad at the position I put him in, like he hadn't just made it all go away. Like, what the fuck, right...? If I'm such an embarrassment, just..."
They're not taking a minute because they feel like they're about to start bawling. Shut up.
"I -- I told him, it was stupid but, I told him he was scarin' me... an' he just said I should think more 'bout what I was doin' next time cuz it was my own damn fault."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"It's because you cared," Ichika points out. "Because Yeo-san means something to you."
But luck...
"A gun's fucking scary," Ichika says. "You're not a coward for being afraid of that."
But Tsubasa is still talking, and Ichika sits down with them. Angry. No, they're not talking about the cop. "..."
He's important. Ichika grits her teeth at that one. She knows how that goes, after all. "...Yeah. If he just wanted to get rid of you, there was his chance. But he doesn't. He just wants someone to push around."
"It's not stupid that you tried to tell him. That you did tell him."
"It's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong there."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Yeah? You should've left Yeo-san to deal without trying to help? How would you feel if you'd done that?"
Aragaki and... drugs. Ichika frowns, but she doesn't know enough. "..." She can look into it. She will. But there's nothing much she can say there. Instead...
"Yeah," Ichika says. "And that's all he cares about. How he looks, what he wants. He's a shit guy."
"You're not a daughter. And you're sure as not just a fuckup."
"It's not whatever. You're better than him."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Like shit," Tsubasa says, terse. "But I feel like shit anyway... and Aragaki-san's fucked to pay for it. Like I dunno if it's 'cuz of that rumour 'bout the train stations or whatever, but... everyone was tellin' me to leave. I'm not -- like -- stupid. I know it's 'cuz I was the weak link. I can't do nothin', but I keep puttin' my foot in it anyway... so I guess I am fuckin' stupid."
And helpless, judging by the tone of their voice, but of course that would be mortifying to say.
They're... not making Hanzou look good being like this, either, are they? The grim thought that crosses their mind is that he'd be even more embarrassed knowing they were so impotent. It's like it's -- crushing. Like a heel, grinding down. But what can they do? They can't do anything about it.
At least... Ichika argues against him. Tsubasa's shoulders sink, though, collapsing a bit further into their knee. "I ain't bigger than Seki-senmu," they invoke his title, bitterly. "And I just -- just --"
Their fist slams down on the bare floor beside them, disturbing the sawdust from all the removals which no one's bothered to clean up. "Fuck, man!" They exclaim, their voice growing higher as it raises. "Why I gotta owe it to him?! Owin' so much, ain't never gonna make a dime!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"That's not on you," Ichika says. "And who's a fucking strong link when they've got guns? I've got that weird power, yeah. It lets me fight monsters. It doesn't let me shrug off guns in the real world."
Ichika does argue against him, though. "Maybe not bigger," Ichika agrees. "But better. You give a shit. You act like a fucking person, not just some upjumped suit who doesn't care about anybody."
Of course nobody's cleaned up here. "...He didn't do it for you, though." A pause. "Do you really owe him? When he was just being a selfish fuck about it?"
"I guess that's up to you. But I think if that's how he's gonna treat you, you should get what you can and get out."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Oh... it's like that?" Tsubasa frowns. "Yeah, I... guess everyone was still scared of Officer Ishiba... but there were still people who got in the way of the gun." Even though they weren't immune to bullets???
Tsubasa finally gives up and just pulls their other leg up so that they can curl into a little ball properly, as God intended. "... I should care about him less, huh," they conclude, disappearing into the Ball Dimension as Lance noses at their side.
"It's so stupid... the day was goin' good, I got fit like I was tellin' you about," because of course they were texting Ichika on the train ride back about their binder adventures, "then all this shit happened... like I can't even escape it."
(Escape him.)
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Yeah." It's like that. "Some people are like that," Ichika says. "Brave or stupid. Couldn't tell you which." But, still.
Tsubasa curls up, and Ichika shakes her head. "...It's not that easy," she knows. "But I can look from outside, and I can see it. He's shit to you."
The rest though...
"Shit happens," Ichika says. "It'll keep happening. But you gotta hang onto the good stuff, I guess. Like... you want to talk about that fit sometime? That sounds cool."
"...Can I give you a hug?" she asks. "Either way, it's cool."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"I -- I thought I was brave," Tsubasa says, "but I must just be stupid."
Tsubasa, the correct amount of things to identify with regarding people who step in front of a gun is zero.
But Tsubasa isn't listening!! They're a hedgehog!!!
"Mm..." Tsubasa hums, when Ichika points out what she's seeing. "H-he's a dick," they grump, and it's almost a petty way to describe that man's sins, but it's hard to get there. At least by tomorrow, they'll at least have advanced in bravery enough to describe him as a dipshit.
Still... shit happens.
"... yeah," Tsubasa says. "I gotta t-tell you more about Kujaku-hakase... they're really somethin' else." Given they've just declared them to have a Doctorate, they must be on the top of their game.
Still... right now...
"Mmh," Tsubasa nods, looking up from their spiky hedgehog ball. (They're not crying. Shut up.) "That sounds nice. Sorry, lemme..." Shakily, they put a hand to the cold ground, pushing themself upright again. They scrub at their eyes with a hand, just, ruining their makeup in the process. "Didn't even find what I went to grab... stupid..."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"I think you're brave."
Hedghog time. But, "He is," Ichika agrees. It's a good start!
"Oh yeah?" Ichika asks. "I want to hear all about them." She's interested! She met them, once--but they didn't really talk in any detail. She talked to the peacock more..
Peacocks can talk. That's a thing that's true in Ichika's world now.
"OK." Ichika waits--and then, leans over, and gives Tsubasa a big hug. "Shh," she suggests. "It's OK."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"C-cool... least that's one of us, huh?" Tsubasa tries to make a joke out of it, as if that makes them any less pathetic.
... but they try not to think about how right Hanzou is. Instead, "they were really amazin', man... talkin' 'bout embracin' what made me powerful, how conformin' wasn't gonna do shit for me... like, they said I was b, bea-- fuck, y'know, like, unique." It's too much for them to say they're beautiful, apparently, even if they're just repeating someone else. "They actually seemed kinda impressed I'd like, made my mask or whatever, y'know, like makin' my clothes and shit... they just said somethin' about embodyin' it. And they said I could come back." There are of course things in Tsumugi's approval which still kind of go over Tsubasa's head, but Ichika might catch them, anyway.
... they don't know about the talking peacock, and indeed, they cannot know about the talking peacock.
Certainly not the way they are now, anyway.
Ichika leans over, though, and -- she can recognise the way they stiffen as someone closes into their space, the moment of tension as they have to tell themself they're not soon to die. But once that passes, they clutch to her back tightly, burying their face against her shoulder as theirs shake in a sob. "Boss..." It's all but a whimper, as they tremble, and as terrible as it is they just end up crying.
Don't cry, they'd told themself, like a mantra, when they were in that car. Don't cry, don't cry, because it wasn't safe, it would just clog up their head when they needed to survive. And it's so easy to slip back into that -- to just stomp it down and deny it all and get by, but -- but if Ichika's here, maybe they can feel that, even if it feels wretched.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
That's one of them. "Yeah."
"They sound like it," Ichika says. She catches the word Tsubasa doesn't use, and she wonders at that. Impressed? Hmmm... "That's really cool," Ichika says. "Well, awesome. You should totally go back."
Maybe she should, too.
Ichika recognizes it, and holds onto Tsubasa, as they cry. It's safe, if she has anything to say about it.
...And she does, right now.