2025-10-17: Hell Hath No Fury
- Log: Hell Hath No Fury
- Cast: Maria Sakurai, Goro Akechi
- Where: Seven Sisters High School - Classroom Building
- OOC Date: October 17, 2025
- IC Date: July 27, 2012
- Summary: Akechi approaches Maria to ask to speak to her in private -- oh, but it's not that. It's not that at all. It's the start of something else, isn't it?
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
Today's finals are... finally over.
Rubbing the back of her left calves with her right shoe, Maria stares intently at the bulletin board on the first floor. She takes a sip from the can of tea she'd purchased and keeps on staring at the ads and announcements, and all the ephemera of school life. They'd lost the track meet while she had been in the hospital -- but of course, that clipping's long gone from the board. She knows where it would have been, though. Right---
There. Right where she's pointed, even though she's alone, right at that half-empty space that's partially covered by the theatre club's weeks-old flyer about the school play.
Even if she hadn't quit, they would have still lost. Right? She would have been in the hospital anyway. So, it's not her fault.
Except for Haruka, no one else really wants to talk to her.
Track club's supposed to be cursed, anyway, though. ...So it's not her fault.
That frown on her face, however, may suggest another story. Slowly, Maria lowers her hand. This is part one of her Junior year, and next year, she'll be a Senior. And then--
And then what?
<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
It's very easy to sneak up on someone while they're abstracted. Goro Akechi perhaps did not mean to in that sense of stalking her. Absolutely not.
It's just, you know... if he's approaching, and she's lost in thought, he's going to take advantage of that!
Because why not?
He too, understands what it's like to get lost in thought over... well, he's not about to confide that.
"You're Sakurai-san, I take it?" Comes a voice from right behind her, and behind her, a smiling affable boy next door.
His hair messy - but messy in that roguish 'I'm not trying too hard' masculine way, when in reality, not a single lock of hair is out of place.
His uniform so neat and tidy that one might wonder if he was sweating at all in the heat of taking today's finals.
His tie loosened just enough that it did not seem effortless either.
"I was hoping that I might run into you." He says, so very casually. Words that so many might wish to hear from him. You see, Goro Akechi is rarely around school.
It's a disappointment to his many fans on campus, of both his status at Seven Sisters - and as a celebrity Detective. They say he has some sort of arrangement with the administration because of the importance of his work.
But here he is, now, saying that he was hoping he might run into her.
"I don't suppose you'd have time for a private chat?" He asks, as if confirming whether she has other plans, knowing fully well she certainly has no plans in the state she's currently in... other than perhaps going home and putting in a last minute futile effort at cramming for tomorrow's test.
"I do promise to make it worth your while."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
She'd promised Yurie she'd meet her at the new crepe place at Lotus Mall. She's already late, and she's getting later. She should probably text her already, say that something came up. Again. At this rate, even her oldest friend won't want to talk to her anymore, and Maria finds that she just doesn't care--
But she's not alone here anymore, now is she?
"Ah?!" she gasps, whirling around so fast it's a miracle she doesn't hit him with her long ponytail. "Yes, that's me! I'm Maria Sakurai, class 2-C, ummmm," she says, as it finally clicks for her who she's talking to. "Oh! Akechi-sempai! You're never in school!"
If what he's heard is correct, she was like this before the accident, too. So it's probably not because of a head injury.
His next statement surprises even her, though. "Really? Me? But I'm," she starts, then stops, then looks him over again.
...This can't be a come-on. He's the perfect student, at the top of all his classes, right? Does he even have time for girls? Besides, all his fans would kill her. She wouldn't blame them for it, anyway.
So instead, she tilts her head to one side, almost playing the part of coquette, and asks, "Why? You don't need a study partner, right?" And if he wanted a study partner, she's probably one of the worst people he could pick-- well, outside one subject, where Maria's scores shine against the odds. "I tried cramming last night, you know, but I just fell asleep. It would have been better if I just went to bed. I had a crease on my face and everything! So you probably mean something else." But what, her expression betrays, would that be?
...Something he wants to tell her in private? Maria blinks, then blinks again.
...She's sure he's too busy for girls, right? Maria looks down at herself and surreptitiously brushes at her skirt. "Well, sure. Where did you have in mind?" she pauses, glancing this way and that down the hall. "There aren't any clubs today, so most of the rooms should be empty. Oh, but not the library. I think the librarian's still there. That reminds me, I need to pick up that new book--"
Is every conversation like this with her, just stream of consciousness?
<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
It is a miracle! Nevertheless, he does veer just slightly, just enough that it's easy enough to think he didn't do that at all, "Aha... a full introduction, I'm honored." He flashes a grin at her. "Well it is finals week. As busy as I can be, I have to make the time for that."
Her stumbling over her words, it's rather endearing. She must be wondering if he's interested in her. Not that it wasn't a vibe he didn't purposefully cultivate, in that vague plausibly deniable kind of way.
But then she regains composure enough to ask if he needs a study partner, "Not exactly." He answers her, with a chuckle at her description after, "My, that must have been a sight. It sounds like this week has been quite distressing for you." He says, sympathetically, "As my kouhai, I could perhaps spare some time after we were finished?"
Well that doesn't deny that he's interested, but he leaves it far too vague to confirm it either. What happens after, he has this grin on his face at her stream of consciousness at going over it.
"Why not your classroom? 2-C, wasn't it?" As he suggests a place that's both comfortable to her, and might make all kinds of thoughts run through her head, "As you say, it should be cleared out by now... and there's no assigned cleaning this week."
Assuming she agrees, he turns and leads the way up the stairs, his metal briefcase with his agency's logo in tow.
Once within the classroom, he slides the door shut, and then, takes out a small notebook, popping off the head of a pin and scrawling something quickly...
"... This is for you." He says, as he rips it out of the notebook and hands it out towards her. It's a... it's a PHONE NUMBER?
"A way to get in touch with me directly, any time you have need."
What could it mean!?
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
That thing's long enough to almost be a whip. If only this were the sort of setting where hair could be a weapon-- but alas, no.
Instead, she nods energetically enough as he compliments her on her greeting of choice. "Of course!" she tells him, cheerily enough.
Most girls would be wondering about that if they were approached by a guy like this, wouldn't they? Even a dimwitted girl knows about things like this. It's a matter of survival: you have to know, even if you have all the subtlety otherwise of a loose brick.
"Isn't it always? I mean, they're always asking hard questions for most of the exams," complains Maria with a sigh, who probably views almost all her questions as 'hard questions'. "Why can't they make it easier? Then they can just give everyone a perfect score and go home!"
Though, if someone's ever taken a look at her exam scores over the years they would have noticed one very odd consistent trend: Maria Sakurai scores poorly in most of her subjects -- not the worst in show, per se, but certainly down towards the bottom. Except, when it comes to mathematics. She never scores in the top ten, but her scores are a lot higher there than one would otherwise expect. Is this what they call 'savantism'?
She nods, enthusiastically. "But, if you want to study with me, I wouldn't mind it. Maybe I'll even get better scores tomorrow?"
Or maybe she just doesn't have the right technique, especially if she's attempting cramming during finals week (spoilers, it never works). But--
"My... classroom?"
She stares at him just so. Is her heart beating faster now? Surely, most girls that he approaches like this would have a stomach full of butterflies at a statement like that.
"O-okay! Lets... meet up there!" she tells him, flashing a grin that's just that shade of nervous to not be entirely heartfelt. "I, um--"
He's already turned to lead the way. Maria pulls out a pocket mirror for just a moment to take a peek at herself within it. Hair good? Makeup more or less good? Then, it's upstairs--
And sure enough, they're alone in here.
"You know, um..." she tells him, twisting her hands behind her back. "Actually, I'm not sure if this is-- eh?"
He's offered her his phone number? Just like that. "U, um..." she stammers, glancing back up at him from the proffered slip. "Akechi-sempai, I'm not sure-- I don't think I'm ready for this! It's a little sudden, isn't it! And, all your fans will get jealous!"
He might well note that she's taken the piece of paper with his phone number anyway, though.
<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
"Aha... that would make things easier for everyone, wouldn't it?" He replies as if he were not just humoring the idea, "I suppose... one hardly needs to consider grades when they're one of our track team's brightest stars."
More accurate, one of it's former brightest stars, but Akechi says it like he believes she'll rally for a full comeback.
Or that he just doesn't know what happened, that's also possible!
Akechi upon reviewing her grades supposed a mostly empty head has a lot of room for numbers.
"Well, I'd certainly hope so." He says, cheerfully to the idea she'd get brighter grades as her study partner.
In the classroom, it's that time when the sun has started to settle into the burnt orange of the late-afternoon, it shines through the windows, framing them both in soft lighting and silhouettes.
It is like something out of a Shoujo anime.
And then he smiles, looking at her with a tilt of head, as if in mild befuddlement by her behavior when in fact he's enjoying her twisting in the wind a bit.
"Jealous? Do you truly think so?"
Fortunately, he isn't the type to actually take advantage of a girl's heart like this. To tease, to troll - to enjoy every moment of taking advantage of their preconceptions...
... but never any further. That'd put him too close to being like his father, and that is a line he refuses to cross.
"Well, you might be right."
OH NO SHE'S CORRECT?
"It isn't every day that I approach someone to offer to take them on as a client."
Bwah-what?
All of a sudden it recontextualizes everything, it makes Maria the one who's in error for thinking it was more than it was. After all, what boy in Japan actually understands a girl's heart like that? They're famously oblivious to their feelings!
He sets his briefcase down upon a desk. "You were a victim of the Psychotic Breakdown incident on the Subway, only a few short months back."
He says, in a statement that is intended to cause a wild emotional whiplash in Maria. "And in the aftermath while you were recovering, your significant other at the time, Takeshi Nakata... shall we say, cut you loose? In order to... play the field, so to speak."
He asks, as if trying to be polite about... ripping the scabs off such fresh wounds, "I find such behavior reprehensible, and thought you might wish for me to 'look into' this detestable individual on your behalf."
Oh.
"After all, such injustice, while it's certainly not illegal... should not be tolerated, don't you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
One of the brightest stars of the track team. Just like that, he names her former club affiliation and she has the look in her eyes of that proverbial patient who has just been told they'll never play piano again after the surgery.
Physically, there's nothing wrong with her. Her arms twinge a little, sometimes. Her back sometimes feels a little stiff. The doctor said it would all fade in time. And she's been able to do all sorts of normal things: run, ride her bike, knit, cook. It's nothing physical keeping her off the team.
They just won't forgive her. She was a part of the team, and by quitting, she let them all down. The only one who would argue for her is Haruka, and that's one voice against all the rest.
But that look's there and gone again, replaced by resting Maria face, which is something like the orange cat missing its braincell. "Uh huh," she says, which is the sort of thing that could mean anything.
It's like something out of a Shoujo anime, sure. It's also like something out of a romance novel.
Akechi probably knows the terrible secret of Sevens' literature club (it's not that secret).
"Well-- yeah!" she says, on the subject of jealousy. "Don't you know? Just about every other girl in my class is in love with-- ah, oh no!" Maria's voice is now muffled as she claps a hand over her mouth, too late. She's just gone and given it away! They'll never forgive her for this!
(He probably already knows this, too.)
But then, the slip of paper in her hand, she stares up at him with some mix of terror and shock and, yes, exhilaration when he says that 'she might be correct'. Is this--?
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
One of the brightest stars of the track team. Just like that, he names her former club affiliation and she has the look in her eyes of that proverbial patient who has just been told they'll never play piano again after the surgery.
Physically, there's nothing wrong with her. Her arms twinge a little, sometimes. Her back sometimes feels a little stiff. The doctor said it would all fade in time. And she's been able to do all sorts of normal things: run, ride her bike, knit, cook. It's nothing physical keeping her off the team.
They just won't forgive her. She was a part of the team, and by quitting, she let them all down. The only one who would argue for her is Haruka, and that's one voice against all the rest.
But that look's there and gone again, replaced by resting Maria face, which is something like the orange cat missing its braincell. "Uh huh," she says, which is the sort of thing that could mean anything.
It's like something out of a Shoujo anime, sure. It's also like something out of a romance novel.
Akechi probably knows the terrible secret of Sevens' literature club (it's not that secret).
"Well-- yeah!" she says, on the subject of jealousy. "Don't you know? Just about every other girl in my class is in love with-- ah, oh no!" Maria's voice is now muffled as she claps a hand over her mouth, too late. She's just gone and given it away! They'll never forgive her for this!
(He probably already knows this, too.)
But then, the slip of paper in her hand, she stares up at him with some mix of terror and shock and, yes, exhilaration when he says that 'she might be correct'. Is this--?
Could it be--?
Is her time of Joka come to an end--?
Is she really ready for this--?
"I--"
She stops and stares at him. She blinks once, twice. Akechi's seen what happens when a computer crashes, right? When there's the infamous 'blue screen of death' up on the monitor? Yeah, this is like that.
"...Client?" Maria finally voices, rebooting at last. So, all of that-- she'd just... assumed. Huh.
"But, about what? You're a junior detective, right? Did I witness a crime?" Peering at him curiously as he opens his briefcase, he finally gets to the heart of the matter: to the thing she doesn't want to talk about and doesn't want to think about.
Well, both of those things.
Before, she'd experienced a fatal error and had to restart. Here, it's like the screen just freezes up: Maria locks up where she stands, thrust back a scant few months in time to the crash (she doesn't remember very much about it) and then the breakup that followed (she remembers entirely too much about it). For a few moments her lips twitch, like she wants to say something, or maybe, would just like to cry. She does neither thing and instead stands there like a human-sized doll for a few moments more.
"...So you know about that," she says at last. "Does everyone know? About him? I wasn't-- I don't listen to those kinds of things, you know!" It's almost like she's trying to argue the point with herself. "He was just-- I was just..." She rips her attention away from him, her bangs half-concealing her eyes at this angle. "...He said he found someone else. When he visited me in the hospital. Do you know how much that hurts? But-- it's not against the law. To hurt someone. Not like that," she finishes heaving one weighty sigh.
Her hand holding the paper with his phone number on it crumples it. Her hand's shaking.
"But... but, but even if it's not-- illegal, I... I can't stand it!" she vents at last, fixing her gaze on him again.
She's crying.
"Saying that to me, when I was hurt like that and couldn't even move... I absolutely can't stand it! And... and, I've seen him since, you know! It's like I don't even exist anymore! Like it never meant anything...!"
<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
Oh did he not catch that? Well one can't expect a boy who barely comes to school to stay in the loop about sports!
(He absolutely knew.)
At her statement, he has a look of mild surprise in his eyes to what she says before he smiles again in that faux affable kind of way, "Aha... well, their secret is safe with me."
Oh no did Maria flub up?!
"... You mean Wang Long Fortune-Telling, I presume? It is quite the popular trend right now."
What!? How'd he get THAT out of it? Then again, perhaps when she's talking about Love and Jealousy, he connected it as part of a popular trend within his fandom.
(No he absolutely understands what she meant, and is instead pretending to be oblivious on such matters of the heart. It's far less awkward.)
Maria takes it quite hard, as he expected, and he watches her with a more solemn expression. "... I did hear a rumor." He says mildly as he leans against a desk, "So I looked into it, to confirm the matter myself."
In reality well, he did no such thing. Maria's Shadow was more than willing to tell him everything herself.
'Do you know how much that hurts?'
His chin tilts down, and for a moment there's actually a sad look in his eyes, "As a man, I can't claim to understand how it feels firsthand. But I don't believe I need to, to sympathize with a girl's pain."
That's perhaps the first genuine thing he's said to her this entire time. It is likely to be fleeting, but he remembers his mother telling her, when he was young. What it was like to be discarded by a man who she loved.
For a time, as she cries, he does so without intervention, like he's merely watching. It hits closer to home than he expected, the idea that someone you are connected to might overlook you - as if you don't exist. Totally unaware of your pain.
But, after a time, it's like he realizes for the sake of his image, as the Second Detective Prince, he must act Princely.
And so he gets up from the desk he was leaning against to walk over to her, and to place a hand upon her shoulder, offering a handkerchief from the pocket of his uniform to her.
"Cry as much as you need to." He says softly, as if in support, even as he offers her the means to dry her tears when she's ready, "Even if it feels like you no longer exists to him - you do exist Sakurai-san."
It's soft, supportive, like he's attempting to be a proper senpai at least in the moment, because he can't ignore a girl crying in front of him - but in truth, it's because there's nobody else here who can play this role.
"There's no need to make yourself small or helpless on such a contemptible man's behalf." He murmurs gently, before his volume raises to something more resolute, "That is what he wants... after all. For you to pine for him, while he moves on without consequence."
And then after a short pause, he says quitely, "However... there is a line from one of Congreve's plays that comes to mind, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.'"
He says and it might take her aback at first to have it put like that, before he explains, "I believe every woman deserves to follow their own sense of Justice, in matters such as these. 'Hell hath no fury'."
He says it again, as if ruminating upon it the delivery of a lesson, "Does that not mean that your own righteous fury- your own sense of Justice can be greater even than that of Divine Justice?"
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
She looks at him in mute horror. You can't just tell the guy in question that a lot of girls are interested in him, including a number of girls in her class (Lisa Silverman excluded, that is). She's broken the gal code, and once someone finds out, she'll be in hot water--
"Eh? Wang Long? I wasn't--"
Maria might be slow on the draw, but even she has her moments. "--Oh! Yes, Wang Long! It's very popular right now! Did you know I'm an emotional White Dragon? What about you, Akechi-san?" It's hard to know if she's that good with her thespian skills, or if she genuinely went off on a tangent. Either way, crisis averted! ...Well, except for the part where he already knew, but details, details.
So it goes, until he cuts to the chase about what he's really wanting to talk to her about.
"A rumor," she says, heaving a shaking breath, "I guess-- I guess, they'd know, seeing him around with-- with, someone else," she manages with a gasp for air. It's a fight to keep to just tears, to keep herself from sobbing and breaking down the way that a part of her wants to.
He doesn't think he knows how it's like firsthand. But he also doesn't believe that he has to.
It's this -- this expression of sentiment, this feeling of that there's someone who understands even if they haven't been in her shoes -- that bestows unto Maria a flood of fresh tears. Just when she thinks she's about to have to go this leg of her journey alone, though...
His hand's on her shoulder. He's pressed a cloth handkerchief into her hand.
His hand's warm, she thinks, a single coherent thought above the flood that takes her.
"You know... you're the first person I've ever said all this too," she says quietly at length, sniffing as she wipes at her face (oh no, her makeup is running...). "I mean-- I spoke to Yurie-chan about it a little bit, but, but I didn't tell her that it was like all that, I... I didn't want to make her sad, too." She didn't breathe a word to anyone else. Not to her grandmother, who had fussed over her. Not to her mother, who looked at her so sadly. Of course, not to her father.
But now he knows, and he's said to her things like...
"...But I can't believe it. He wants me to be like this. To be so..." She takes another weighty breath, heaves it out. She feels hollowed out, empty-- nearly.
Nearly, because there's something else in there other than sorrow. He moves on without consequence. It's not against the law, after all. She, meanwhile, is left behind as an afterthought in his wake. And--
"He'll... keep doing it, won't he. To other girls?" They might not have as bad luck as Maria, of course. "Over and over, until... until someone can stop him. Is that-- do you, can you do something?" There's a light in her eyes as she gazes up at him, pleading. But furious.
This isn't about her anymore, is it?
Hell hath no fury. Her own sense of justice.
"Or..."
"Or," she repeats, taking a breath as she gazes out the window. "Or, maybe I have to do something."
<Pose Tracker> Goro Akechi has posed.
Fortunately, she doesn't seem to think it's unusual that he connected it that way, rather than any way that made overt sense! Genius detectives do often go on tangents, after all.
"Why I had no idea." He smiles, "I believe I'm a Navy Blue Dragon, if I'm not mistaken."
Which means he's not compatible with Maria. This is for the best, for everyone to give her another clue that he's not compatible with her.
He's not good handling a crying girl. He was never good at comforting his mother when she cried, nor is he a child anymore, who can do as children do.
"Quite so." He says softly, to her of rumors... before not quite thinking about how his actions might be taken by her. What thoughts she might have in the attempt of comforting her.
"I'm sorry that's the case. That you kept this pain in all that time." He says, quietly, to her statement, "Or perhaps that you felt like you couldn't share it in detail, because he made you feel humiliated."
He can at least speak to how men like this make women feel. That much he can convey quite well.
He's spoken to enough Shadows of the women his father has discarded.
Empty.
Now there's a feeling he knows quite well. An understanding that he has no value to anyone, no connections to anyone. When you're empty like that... there's something you can so very easily fill it with.
"Yes, any man who would do this to a woman... is wretched." He says quietly, looking through her, past her almost.
'He'll... keep doing it, won't he. To other girls?'
Akechi looks, reluctant for a moment, like he's hesitating as a man to convey an awful truth to a crying girl.
"It is almost certain. Men such as that do not change their behavior without being taught a lesson. They hardly consider women to be... people, really."
But can he do something...?
"Well, I am quite a good Detective, I believe there are certainly ways to punish him without crossing certain lines."
A cue perhaps there, he is the Detective Prince, certainly he wouldn't do anything illegal? But... that doesn't mean there's nothing he can do.
'Or...'
'Or,'
'Or, maybe I have to do something.'
Despite his best efforts for it not to a smile does creep on his expression, "You're a strong girl, Sakurai-san." He praises her, as his hand drifts back away.
"To face such cruelty... and decide that something should be done." As he blows right past the 'Maybe'.
"Take some time to think about what that is. And well. Once you do... all you need to do is pick up the phone."
As he makes his pitch. Justice. Revenge. Concepts that he need only put in someone's head... and offer them the tools to actualize it.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
They're not compatible, and as an afficionado, Maria immediately clocks this fact. So it goes, in life. She'll survive.
There's something he can do, maybe. He's a good detective. There might be something he can find about Takeshi Nakata, some way to make sure he never hurts any other girl's heart again. "Please. Please, if there's something-- if it's just me, I, I-- I'll manage! But, I don't want someone else feeling like this."
She doesn't want someone else to feel this sorrow, this anger.
She shakes her head when he says it. She's a strong girl. In the moment, truly, she feels like anything but: she's turned to another person to ask them to help her, because she can't do it on her own. Even if she went and yelled at Takeshi, he'd just laugh her off, right? And she's not able to make him hurt in a way that matters.
She...
She needs to make sure he's punished. Shouldn't there be... punishment, when someone does something wrong?
Something must be done. So it'll have to come from Akechi, because there's nothing that she can do, even as she feels herself buoyed by that terrible desire to embody that sentiment--
To be the Fury, from Hell.
"Pick up the phone," she echoes, unfolding at last the crumpled piece of paper in her hand. It's Akechi's number, of course. Another number comes to mind, too.
"I'll... think about it. Thank you, Akechi-sempai. Um," she says, offering him back the handkerchief tentatively. "Sorry. I made a mess of it. Next time, um, I'll-- buy you a canned tea! As a thank you."
Bit by bit comes the return of the more bubbly girl most people know.