2025-09-29: Like Orihime and Hikoboshi
- Log: 2025-09-29: Like Orihime and Hikoboshi
- Cast: Tatsuya Suou, Jun Kashihara
- Where: Kuzunoha Detective Agency - Aoba Ward - Sumaru City
- OOC Date: September 29, 2025
- IC Date: Tuesday, July 17, 2012
- Summary: After searching for Tatsuya for so long, fortune finally has Jun cross his path at last. The two of them sit down for a long-awaited conversation, including a present for Tatsuya's birthday--and a confession of Jun's feelings.
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
Tatsuya's made himself scarce after the arson at the art exhibit, and has found himself at Aoba Way again. He's managed to avoid significant clothing damage this time thanks to not driving over a landmine, but Sudou got some cuts in with his sword and his slacks are ripped with his legs lightly bleeding -- not life-threatening, but a little startling to some of the passerby that he's trying to just ignore as he pointedly tries to make his way towards his usual safehouse -- the Kuzunoha Detective Agency.
The boy in red leathers is about to turn towards the store and has made it to the front door when...
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
"Suou-kun...?"
An achingly familiar voice sounds behind Tatsuya just before he can enter the Kuzunoha Detective Agency. There is a sound of shoes pounding on pavement as--yes--Jun Kashihara runs up towards him, dressed in the summer Kasugayama uniform with his signature yellow lily in his breast pocket.
"Suou-kun, you're hurt!" he utters, visible eye wide in astonishment and concern. But rather than do the logical next thing, which is 'ask what happened'... Jun purses his lips--and turns a slow look over towards Aoba Park, where emergency services still swarm to put out the fires there.
He'd just been near there, actually--from Double Slash to the vicinity of Aoba Park, not too close because there was already a large crowd and he didn't want to rubberneck--and was heading back for Aoba Way when... well...
He'd found precisely who he's been looking for all afternoon. Fortune and love indeed... It seems his dream really did come true. He smiles briefly to himself as he turns back to Tatsuya--assuming he hasn't run away.
"Let's get you inside," he says if he hasn't. Jun will then follow him into the detective agency and accept no protests otherwise.
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
Tatsuya's eyes widen as someone identifies him just before he can dart into the relative privacy and safety of the agency -- and it's a voice that he wouldn't mistake anywhere else. He turns and sees, of course, none other than Jun Kashihara, who's already rushing to his side. He's in his uniform, with that signature lily he'd always see him with...
The boy's look is one of conflict, but he doesn't really have the capability to just run away at present. He nods quietly and enters into the agency, where--
"Welcome, nya~!" echoes the giant golden lucky cat statue.
Tatsuya looks to Tamaki and Chief Todoroki. "I'm back," he calls to them, but then gestures with just his head. The two seem to acknowledge rather quickly that he needs to talk to Jun, and give them a little space to talk to on the couches, the ceiling fan swinging lazily over head. Tamaki hands him a first-aid kit, before he looks back towards Jun.
"You weren't involved in the fire, were you, J-- Kashihara-san...?"
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
That's quite a big lucky cat. It even talks! There must be a device inside for that... Jun gives it an interested look, wishing he could tinker with it a bit... but that isn't why he's here.
I'm back, Tatsuya says, and Jun turns to Tamaki and Todoroki. Is this where Tatsuya's been? He keeps that question to himself and bows his head in greeting, introducing himself briefly. Sure enough, given the way Tatsuya talks, they don't seem shocked to see him in this state--Tamaki even hands him a first aid kit in seemingly nonchalance. Jun finds he has mixed feelings about that.
They give both of them space, though. Jun stops by the kitchenette, and finding the bathroom door locked, gets several paper towels and returns after wetting them. He sits with Tatsuya on the couch--next to him, albeit not too close--and offers them to Tatsuya so he can clean himself up. He might not want Jun doing that for him, after all...
"No," he says quietly. "I was over in Double Slash doing some studying--" technically not a lie "--when I heard the police sirens. It looks horrible..."
He pauses, watching Tatsuya's face for a moment. His handsome face is troubled. "...Was it him?"
He means the Joker Killer. Who knows who Tatsuya will think he means, though?
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
Tatsuya's popped the box open and applied some antiseptic on the cuts by the time Jun backs arrive, then accepts the paper towels with some measure of gratitude as he cleans himself up -- with barely a flinch, even though he's just pressing right up against an open wound and cut, as if this has happened to him a dozen times over. Some bandages later, and he wipes his hands with the rest of the towels and starts packing things away. The slacks will keep the bandages taut enough, he doesn't need to wrap them in gauze.
"... it was," Tatsuya answers, deciding that he doesn't feel like giving Jun the runaround -- and he's already been exposed to him once. "He was after someone I'd just met recently, Tsubasa Seki." There's a sudden look of conflict on Tatsuya's face, though, as he realises he's talking casually as if he's just embroiled in all of this -- and that'll make Jun more curious, too.
It looks like Tatsuya assumed correctly. Perhaps Sudou is still fresh on his mind with regards to Jun, given how much he tormented him the last time -- and how Sudou's asking where Jun is too. "He's... you still have that emblem on you, right? Please... keep it that way -- I don't want him getting anywhere close to you."
What a strange boy -- does he have that much stock in a rumour...?
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
Jun watches Tatsuya in silent concern as he fixes himself up like this is completely normal for him. It's a stark reminder of how the two of them are living in very different worlds. Ironic that it's Tatsuya, the Sevens student, who's living in a far more violent one than Jun, the Kasugayama student.
The mention of Tsubasa as the Joker Killer's latest target rips a gasp from Jun's lungs. "Tsubasa-kun?! Are they all right?! They're a close friend of mine!" Well--'close' friend is a bit of an exaggeration, but Jun means it sincerely. It's not exactly curiosity; arguably, it's much worse.
He does see that conflicted look on Tatsuya's face, though, and settles. "Yes..." he murmurs. In another context, it would be strange; right now, after the things Jun's heard... He's not quite at 'the supernatural is real' yet, but there is clearly something going on. For example: "How did you know I had one?"
...Though that at least has a logical answer, which Jun helpfully supplies when he adds, "I suppose you must have heard from Akechi-kun... He's the one who told me you've been chasing after that serial killer." He's also the one who gave Jun his Sevens emblem, though Jun had to get extras on his own for his parents.
"I think I understand now why you gave me that bouquet--some of why, anyway," he continues. "You're wrapped up in something awfully dangerous, aren't you? I know a bit of self-defense, but clearly it isn't enough against someone like him..." His smile is subdued. "Don't worry, though. I always keep it on me." To do what little he can to reassure him, Jun produces the Sevens emblem from his pocket and shows it to him. Back into the pocket it goes afterwards.
Of course, there was that rumor lately that the Triple Seven logo will also work too, but now there isn't a guarantee of either of them always working...
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
Tatsuya's eyes widen slowly as Jun blurts out that Tsubasa is a friend, and -- he nods slowly, as he says, "Yeah, we managed to stop the Old Maid from getting to them." A silent look of conflict again; the more he explains, the more and more he can't avoid details, and the more Jun's memory will get jogged by all of this... Eikichi's already awakened to his Persona, he can't take that back, and being awakened to a Persona inevitably means getting closer to the truth.
Jun asks how he knows he had one -- and Tatsuya blinks a few times, frowning gently as he says, "I... you met Akechi?" That doesn't seem to fill him with confidence. He told Jun that Tatsuya's been chasing after the serial killer. What's that guy's motive? He fills him with deep unease, the way he just seems to slither around him, his presence disturbing and unsettling...
But Jun also lays out his own logic -- that's why he gave him the bouquet, didn't he? Tatsuya's wrapped up in something dangerous, and he doesn't want Jun to get involved... he knows self-defence -- and Tatsuya knows that -- but it's not going to be enough against someone like Sudou. He doesn't feel good about this one bit -- he knows Jun can take care of himself, the last thing he wants is to act like he's defenceless and needs to be hovered over, that's something they've inevitably talked about on the Other Side, but right now...
Without a Persona, Jun can't fight on even level...
"... when I get involved with people, it always ends up with a lot of pain and grief for them," Tatsuya admits, some of that own grief entering his face once more, unable to bear how close Jun is presently. "You should forget about me... it was a mistake for me to visit you at the hospital..."
There's such a powerful 'but', there. But he did visit. He gave that bouquet. There were undeniable, strong feelings that he had to get off his chest.
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
The way Tatsuya says that--you met Akechi?--gives Jun pause. He'd thought at the time that Akechi had been trying to look out for him, a sort of cruel-to-be-kind thing, but hearing that, he suddenly wonders. "Yes... He's a classmate of yours, isn't he? My father teaches at your school, and when I came to bring him dinner one afternoon, we happened to run into each other..."
That's not quite what happened, but Jun is reluctant to admit that he went to Tatsuya's homeroom on purpose to try to look for him. It's... embarrassing, when they're talking face to face like this. Jun doesn't want Tatsuya to think he's been stalking him.
It's hard too, though. Tatsuya just talking about the pain and grief he supposedly brings makes Jun's heart ache. He wants to reassure him, but... what can he really do? He bows his head. He'd been so excited and hopeful to find him only an hour or two ago, and now...
"I understand," he says softly. "I don't want to cause you any pain or grief either, Suou-kun." His hand, still in his pocket, curls around something else... He takes a deep breath, then pulls out an envelope that he then holds out to him. "But first... please let me give you this."
The envelope has nothing special on it. When Tatsuya opens it, though, he'll find a voucher for a new motorcycle at a local Sumaru car dealership.
"I happened to win that by chance in a raffle this morning," Jun murmurs, cheeks pink as he watches Tatsuya's face. "I want to give it to you... as a present."
After all, today is...
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
The way Jun has to remind him that Akechi is his classmate, a fact he keeps forgetting simply because it isn't a fact for him, contorts his face gently. That was an advantage Akechi had over him too, the way he found out he was just trying to figure him out through context clues. "He didn't do anything, did he?" he seems so suspicious and wary. Why is he acting this way? Is it something related to how Tsubasa thinks Tatsuya's involved with the Joker Killer, and for the malicious?
But Jun seems to acquiesce to his request to forget about him -- and something feels hollow in his heart. It's what he should do, it's the right thing to do, and yet... pushing people away never feels good, in the slightest. His eyes widen slightly as Jun produces an envelope. He inspects it for a moment, and then his eyes widen further--
"... ..."
Tatsuya's forcing himself to not have the softest smile -- and it ultimately fails for a moment. Then he seems to catch himself, like he has to maintain that distance between them. "You knew it was my birthday...? And you also knew I... well. You figured out my motorcycle blew up, didn't you, on that day... I figured it was all over the news." That and his motorcycle leathers were cooked when he visited him.
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
"What?" Jun utters, taken aback by Tatsuya's question about Akechi--and, even more than the question itself, the hostility inherent to it. Akechi hadn't given him the impression that he and Tatsuya were on such bad terms... "N-no--well, he did say some things that disturbed and upset me... but he didn't harm me in any way. He was the one who gave me this Sevens emblem, in fact--he tore it off his own uniform--and warned me I shouldn't get involved with you." His lashes flutter to half-mast. "...Not if I can't handle the matter of... the Joker Killer."
There is a heavy silence for a moment. Then, though, he produces that envelope, and the light of anticipation raises his chin as he watches him. The sight of that smile, however brief, brings a smile to Jun's own lips that remains even when Tatsuya reasserts his cool demeanor. He can't help it; after all--
"Of course I knew. You told me that day in the hospital, silly," Jun says, a bit of a teasing warmth entering his eyes and smile, bangs caressing his cheek as he tilts his head. He, fortunately, doesn't say anything like, Did you forget?
"I didn't know for sure if it was your motorcycle, but... you were wearing motorcycle leathers that day. Truthfully, though, the fact that it's a motorcycle voucher is a coincidence. I just happened to take part in a raffle, and that was the grand prize," he continues. "It was very lucky... as is meeting you again like this."
He pauses, gathering up his nerve as he clutches his hands in his lap. Seeing him again like this... he has to tell him. It might be his last chance. "...The truth is, Suou-kun, I've been thinking about you ever since that day in the hospital," he murmurs, heart racing. "I've been hoping ever since then to see you again... I've even been looking for you. I wanted to give you a birthday present..."
...I wanted to confirm how I feel for you, he leaves unsaid. He already knows by now.
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
Tatsuya chides himself for how unguarded his question about Akechi is. There's no reason to raise suspicions like that, just because he and Akechi don't quite get along and there's something about his behaviour that doesn't sit right with him. "... mm. I think that's it, he kind of has a way of getting under my skin," Tatsuya excuses, because it looks like Jun's had a similar experience with him too. "But... I'll have to thank him, then."
If Jun can't handle the matter of the Joker Killer...
... it isn't a matter if he can handle it. It's about the promise they made. His mind briefly echoes to the last words they shared, before he, too, disappeared in a burst of gold, in Philemon's chamber.
He's distracted, as Jun points out he told him -- "Oh." He did forget... how clumsy of him. It's another way in which something seemingly insignifcant has drawn them both back together. But he wasn't sure it was his motorcycle, and the fact that he won a raffle in the first place is a stroke of luck...
It was all fate, he seems to be echoing.
Tatsuya can sense that nervousness rising within Jun -- it's painfully nostalgic, the way he's clearly working up towards something sensitive. It reminds him of being on the steps of the Leo Shrine, when he, too, had to work up all the courage when asked if he had anyone he considered was special in his life...
The truth is...
It takes all of Tatsuya's willpower to resist outwardly reacting -- there's a wildfire of emotions in him; some kind of pure, selfish joy that somehow, torn across worlds, they would still find their way to each other, like Hikoboshi and Orihime...
Tatsuya holds that envelope just a little tighter, before setting it on his lap so he can turn his entire attention onto Jun. What could he say? That he returns those feelings -- have always returned those feelings? But there's so much in the way he knows he can't... that ultimately, he does love another, different Jun, with a different set of experiences and traumas than the one all but confessing before him. He feels upset thinking about that, as if he's saying this Jun is less real than the one he knew, because ultimately this is the form of the Jun that that one fervently believed in...
"I'm..." Tatsuya doesn't really know what to say. It's clear that his silence, the way he's trying to keep a cool face, scarce hides a boiling concoction of emotions inside -- he knows Jun probably knows this about him now, the way he drops hints, like the bouquet telling him to forget about him but also -- he made him happy.
"I don't... have anything to give in return..." At first, it sounds like he's talking about handing back a present, like he should be giving him a watch. But it's clear he means more than just that. That he can't reciprocate... no matter how much he'd like to.
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
"Ahaha... He does seem to have a sort of gadfly nature," Jun replies, eyes softening. Clearly he's bought his excuse; it's not hard to. "When you do, please let him know I'm sorry for how I behaved back then too."
It does feel like fate. Jun thinks so too--the stars he gazed at early this morning, the dream he had afterwards, winning at that raffle by chance, and now happening to run into Tatsuya just in time for his birthday. So many coincidences strung together feel like it has to be fate. Jun keeps those thoughts to himself, though. Hikoboshi and Orihime, Giovanni and Campanella... The common thread between them is that they don't get to stay together. And when Jun sees Tatsuya clutch that envelope tighter, hears his hesitation and the way he struggles to maintain his cool...
"I... understand," he can only say--with difficulty, but with grace.
The painful thing is that he doesn't understand--how could he? That Tatsuya is from another version of reality, who loves another version of himself--a version of himself that has gone so that the four of them could make a better world, one where their Maya-nee could live? It's ironic--Jun was even talking to that very Maya Amano a short while ago. Tatsuya was their topic of conversation. But that's a pair of ships that's passed in the night. Right here, right now, it simply sounds like Tatsuya is telling him he doesn't return his feelings... or, perhaps, can't. You made me happy--but he has nothing to give in return. Visiting him in the hospital was a mistake. Tatsuya's trying to bring a serial killer to justice; it would only put him in danger.
It doesn't really answer the question of why Tatsuya cares so much, of how he could have made him happy when that was the first time they'd spoken. It's enough now, though. Jun can accept at this point the meaning of the other half of Tatsuya's message--and isn't that enough?
It has to be enough. Because he has to let go.
"I'm sorry to trouble you like this," he adds, regaining his own composure. "Even so, I'm happy. I'm glad I got to see you one more time and... tell you how I feel."
This way, there's closure. The lingering mystery has been solved just enough. The engraved lighter in his other pocket weighs heavy--it feels to Jun like he should be offering that instead of the voucher--but something stops him.
Perhaps it's that tortured look on Tatsuya's handsome face. Jun meant it when he said he doesn't want to cause him any pain or grief either.
Jun rises to his feet and bows to him, grateful and formally polite--his own form of distance. "Thank you again for saving me that day, Suou-kun," he murmurs. "I'll stay out of your way from now on. I promise." He stands up straight, and though there's strength in his smile, there's also a secret sorrow for his ex-dream. "It's the least I can do to help you put a stop to that fiend."
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
Tatsuya's pushing him away. He always does... doesn't he? It feels like his life's just been a string of pushing people away. He bickered vehemently with his brother and never mended relationships with him in the end; to the very last moment, they were still quite distant. His mother ultimately never emotionally recovered from the fracture in the family. His father pushed himself away, believing that a man must shoulder the burdens of his choices on his own, something that'd infected his view of how a man should behave.
Despite his popularity and looks, he was a loner, the way he had to tell Takami-sensei that he didn't know what he was doing after high school. He had no aim; he was drifting. He only ever had purpose because life had stumbled right into him with the extraordinary set of circumstances foisted onto him. If he'd never been challenged by Eikichi, and drove to Sumaru Prison with Lisa, maybe he would've just continued drifting.
And now... it feels as if that's happening again. For good reasons, perhaps, because of promises made by people who've gone to become starlight -- just as he should've had, a revenant on this side of the world, but...
It wounds him, the way Jun has to compose himself, to say he understands, as if his feelings have been trampled on. The last thing he wants is to hurt any Jun. He has to work through the words, he knows, and the rest of his night might just be horrendous, on his birthday. Is this the way he wants it to end between them? Hold onto his hand. Just like that night in the hospital. Give him an embrace. Go on. It'll be nice, and sweet, and...
And that's Nyarlathotep talking again.
"... thank you," Tatsuya answers, very clear even after Jun bows and turns around. "Your feelings... they're..." A hesitant pause. "They're very important and precious to me... but I'm the one at fault here, Jun." Yobisute, just like that, like he can't afford to pretend that he's at the level of Kashihara-san anymore.
Tatsuya's heart's twisting inside. He didn't want to leave it on just Jun bleeding his heart out the door, but he might've given him more hope, more mixed messages, that he doesn't want it to end this way, that he wants more. He could've had a clean break here... it could've been the end of everything between them.
Like the flowers before, he can't help but keep kindling that flame that should've been put out long ago.
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
He is. And he always has. But doesn't he have good reason here? If Jun remembers... it will be the end of the world. At least Tatsuya doesn't have to slay this princess to keep that from happening.
That doesn't matter to the heart, though. Jun is trying to be strong for him--to choose rationality over emotion--and that feels bad. Neither of them wants to hurt the other, and so they keep hurting each other over and over--they've been in that cycle before. They were able to break it on the Other Side, but what could either of them do to change that here, now that so much has changed for Jun--and nothing at all has changed for Tatsuya?
For one, Tatsuya could tell him a fraction of what he really feels in return.
"Ta--" Jun utters, like he might end it a certain way without thinking. He cuts himself off, though. "...Don't say that you're at fault. You didn't ask me to feel this way. You may have something important you need to do--something I know I can't be part of--but my feelings are my own, understand?" The tone on that last word is nigh imperious, a strictness that speaks to the steel at Jun's core on both sides. The velvet that wraps it returns when his eyes soften. "I won't have you take the blame all for yourself... T... Tatsuya."
A vivid red creeps up his cheeks, but Jun doesn't walk that counter-yobisute back, nor does he look away.
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
It's Sudou that has to listen to all the different Voices in his head in his quest to slay the princess, not Suou, fortunately... or, well, that's the way Sudou presents it, but you really do have your own special voice inside, don't you, Suou?
But what Jun returns surprises Tatsuya, even -- the way he tells him to not feel you're at fault, that his feelings are ultimately his own. Understand? Tatsuya's eyes widen for a moment, because it really does flash him right back to some of the rough edges they've had to iron out in their own relationship; he had, inevitably, a habit of being overprotective at times, a bit coddling, perhaps borne from out of that ultimately patriarchial view of what a man should take responsibility for -- but he was receptive, with open eyes, to what Jun had to say, that he wanted a relationship on equal grounds. Theirs was a very fresh and ultimately very brief relationship, but it'd given him a lot of experience on how it is he should treat others...
And being reminded of that... it tugs at his heartstrings further. The steel underneath the velvet, that he knew was there all along. The contrast was part of what made Jun very attractive, the way he could assert himself.
"... My bad. I get it," Tatsuya's response is very short and simple -- to someone onlooking, it might seem curt, dismissive, even, like he's not paying full attention.
But the look on his face, the tone, does tell Jun in a way he perhaps shouldn't know that he gets it in a way beyond words... but why would he? For a moment that feels intensely like deja vu, it's like they're two old lovers again, who can just briefly point things out to each other and have it click in ways others can't, lovers that call each other by first names... the way Tatsuya accepts Jun's feelings without having to be contrite or continue a blame-cycle about it, without having to walk on eggshells.
... then the moment passes.
He does rise so that he can see them to the door, at the very least. But he does feel the need for something a bit more final, before those threads from the Other Side continue to pull at them, and it's softly that he says:
"Goodbye... Jun."
<Pose Tracker> Jun Kashihara has posed.
It does seem superficially like a glib response. Maybe Tamaki and/or Todoroki will remember that way later, if they're paying attention. Jun doesn't take it that way, though. The look in his widened eyes tells him that he really does get it.
Jun smiles warmly anew, and for a moment, everything feels... right. Like this is the way things should be. Like they're two lovers reunited after a long, long time apart, ones who've had their differences and misunderstandings, worked through them, and become stronger and closer as a result. Jun slips his hand into his other pocket, wrapping fingers around the lighter his father gifted him as a child, ready to gift it to Tatsuya in turn on the strength of that deja vu-esque feeling alone...
... then the moment passes.
Tatsuya stands up and walks him to the door, and Jun's grip on the lighter tightens, then loosens, before he reluctantly begins to leave. He pauses when Tatsuya bids him farewell, half-turning to give him one last, lingering look over his shoulder. He doesn't want to say it back... but he must. He promised. And... this is just how things have to be. The sooner he accepts that, the better for both of them.
"Goodbye, Tatsuya," he whispers.
When he turns forward and heads through the door, he does not look back again.