2025-12-29: Ganbatte, Cicada-san
- Log: Ganbatte, Cicada-san
- Cast: Umie Akabane, Yoko Hirano, Katsuya Suou
- Where: A Shrine, Iwatodai City
- OOC Date: January 29, 2026
- IC Date: September 02, 2012
- Summary: "They're looking for mates. They'll die soon so they're trying hard."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
As the last days of summer seep away, the chances to chase the last vestiges of cicadas and the toktoktok of getta grow thinner and thinner still.
So too does the festive nature of the shrines that participate, which can be important for one person, it being an Umie Akabane. Like hanging christmas decor in an otherwise stoic, dark room, it changes a shrine from something that illicts bad half-remembered memories and possible panic attacks to... something that may not, as long as she forgets that it's a shrine.
>> want to meet? need to talk updates
>> nothing big
For once, Katsuya is not getting a message to go dive into a cognitive otherworld that may leave scars, or, alternatively, being asked how to make shortcake. (Not that he seemed to mind the latter.)
The festival currently beginning to cycle up is a much smaller affair, hardly the sort of thing that would gather people from all over in this much smaller shrine. With rain in the forecast for tonight, the fireworks (already a small affair that is upstaged by its larger cousin days before) are guaranteed to be a no show.
It's a perfect cover to chat, without attracting possible trouble from a possible follower like Shiryuu.
Dressed in a disguise of glasses, a baseball cap, an oversized t-shirt with a random mascot on it, wrist half-sleeves and denim shorts, Umie's disguise really isn't meant to be there for people who know her, but for people who wouldn't know her at all. Katsuya would definitely know her, for one.
Would a random passing Yoko know?
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Yoko's disguise is foolproof. A cotton yukata patterned in red goldfish on a navy background, a bright green heko obi in a butterfly knot. When anybody sees her dressed like this, they'll believe she's an ordinary festival enthusiast!
She is one, but other people will know too.
In deference to the threat of rain she has a folded umbrella in her bag. That's right! Even now, Yoko hasn't abandoned her messenger bag or its contents. It looks a little heavy and it's pulling at one side of her yukata but it's important!!
And... sadly, Umie's disguise is simply too good. Also Yoko only met her once. So Yoko doesn't approach her, staying closer to the shrine entrance with her sketchbook balanced on her knees. Her pencil scratches steadily across the page.
She found a cicada!
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Work, alas, does not stop for all festivals. Crime does not take a holiday; it's important to ensure that sufficient officers are on hand at all times to handle whatever might come. That, and the wedding to which he and much of the force have been invited to approaching, they must make sure to balance schedules against who will be taking that day off and who will be on duty. Which is to say--
Umie will have to wait for Katsuya's shift to end, first and foremost. Fortunately, there's nothing that requires him to work late today (even if it bothers him to leave on time, a little) and so--
"Akabane-kun, I hope I did not keep you waiting," he says, once he does finally arrive. He stands out somewhat: the only person here perhaps in a fancy suit and not in either casual clothes or a yukata. He's certainly feeling like he's sticking out, but it can't be helped: he didn't have the time to go home and change, so he came as he was.
"You said that there was something you wanted to talk about?"
He's still thinking himself about what happened the other day. Just like on the beach, the world had tilted, and that woman had, again, appeared. He's not sure how much of that he should relate to Umie, though.
He hasn't noticed Yoko yet, but--
...but why does he have the strangest sense that there's a cat here?
"..."
"...Does this shrine have a cat...?"
He can't help it.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
What isn't late at all is Katsuya himself; Umie can tell he's just come off work. Well, at least this'll skip any awkward questions. ( .... why is it that all the Persona-users Umie develops an acquaintance with are all mostly younger or older than her? Tamaki's the same age, and Shiryuu is, and Masao is too, right? Augh.)
Umie shakes her head. "It's fine. Sorry to call you on your shift."
Funny, that Katsuya will be at a wedding that's coming up that Umie also gained an invitation to. Funny that something happened on that same beach, in fact. So many events could be chalked up to mere coincidence, but, like following the trajectory of a marble to its origin, it is hard to tell what caused the coincidence until it's occurred, and by then, it may be too late.
However, even the Crawling Chaos cannot see the future, only bet on the outcome being the worst result, each time, all due to humanity's hubris.
....
Umie's disguise may be infalliable to Yokos, but is the person Umie with as unrecognizable?
Like so many things Umie utilizes, they aren't foolproof; far from it. Even Umie's cognitive abilities can be easily bypassed: knowing who Umie's Persona is, or saying her name aloud is enough to dispell the cognitive illusions her Persona can give her. What is far more stable is that resonance, in that she seems to lack one entirely. Yoko would likely see Katsuya, but the person in front of him is simply a person he's talking to.
A person who blinks, eyes widening slightly behind those clear plastic frame glasses as she glances about. She taps a red nail to her chin. "I'm sure there's probably one or two around. Allergies acting up? We can move, if you like. Maybe pick a place near there?"
She gestures, towards-- no, that wouldn't be a good spot. Maybe... Ah.
Her hand moves, guided towards an area nearby where Yoko is, not realizing she's there.
This feels like a good spot, away from anyone that may overhear.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
When you turn your back on the world, the world may turn its back on you...! Or more likely, holding still while crouched down below bush height makes you hard to spot, especially in twilight.
Scritch scritch scritch. The cicada takes up the whole page, all the little chitinous panels and delicate glass wings roughed out. Even if they're really loud, Yoko can't help but kind of like them. They're just so iconic. And they're gone before you know it.
This one's been quiet and still since Yoko found it clinging to the bark of a tree. It might be dead, or maybe it's getting ready to molt...?
The flap of her messenger bag is open so Yoko can reach in if she wants to. Maybe she ought to add some highlights to portray the shine of the streetlights on its shell? She reaches for her eraser--
*REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,* announces the cicada, flinging itself into the air! Right before bouncing off of Yoko's face, who yelps and goes tumbling backward. "!!"
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Katsuya shakes his head. "It's quite alright. Everything has been quite busy in preparation for the wedding." Umie knows about the wedding, right.
"No, actually... I'm not experiencing any trouble with my allergies. I just... had the sense there was a cat in here," he explains, looking about himself as if expecting to see his prediction proven right.
There is no cat.
"..." Does Umie think he's been working too hard, he wonders, feeling a little like he's going quietly starting to lose it himself.
"Er, right, yes, of course," he says, when she ushers him onwards closer to where a young girl is sketching an insect, not noticing at all that she's there. "Now--"
Nearby there's a yelp! Katsuya's just in time to see Yoko take a tumble. "Miss, are you alright--"
He's in the middle of crouching to extend a hand when he notices the scattered sketchbook and paraphenalia for artistry. And realizes that, oh, he does know this girl...
"Hirano-san?" he asks, taken by surprise.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
If you were to ask someone why they would direct someone else to point at a spot where some innocent soul may overhear something, they'd have a falliable reason that may not foresee the complete picture of what would happen next.
If you were to ask Nyarlathotep, well, first off, you're asking Nyarlathotep, so that was your first mistake. It would just go downhill for you from there. (You'd also not get a reason. It was a fool's errand from the beginning, you poor, poor fool. Your very existence is one of contradiction and suffering.)
"Huh, maybe it's..." Umie squints her eyes, leaning forward (while still holding herself at a casual distance), to give Katsuya a closer examination. "Mmn... I guess if it was a supernatural cat, you'd be sneezing." She grins wryly. "You *do* seem to have a knack for that, Katsuya-san... but in this case? Maybe you've been overworking yourself." Katsuya's fears may be justified.
It would be easy to mark Umie as someone with a better grasp of resonance than most, and, in a way, she would be. However, it's also highly geared towards survival, threats, and good ol'fashioned bloodshed, not finding curious little Yokos.
Which is why, moving to that new location, Umie is none the wiser. "The Old--"
There's a yelp, and Umie's chin snaps to the disturbance with an almost animalistic manner to it, like a stray cat about to leap back from a cucumber thrown in its path.
Katsuya's instincts provide a better reaction, while Umie quickly latches onto. "Oh hey, you alright?"
Umie's eyes widen at Yoko's face. Certainly, she wouldn't normally remember every customer's face, but she'd certainly remember someone who was 1. mistake as possibly having a concussion, and 2. was there when she first met Kurou, as well. "You know her?" she asks, idly, satisfied as Katsuya takes over making sure Yoko is fine. She does, however, kneel down to pick up an escaping pencil and a dislodged eraser, which she places on top of the sketchbook so they don't get lost. "Sorry about that. Should've realized..."
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
She keeps her eyes squinched shut (and covered for good measure) for a few tense post-cicada moments. When nothing else comes winging out of the evening to smack into her face, Yoko cautiously peeks out between her fingers. "Oh. Officer Suou."
A few small items have scattered out of her bag, eraser and pencil box and other smallish bits and bobs. Yoko sits up, frowning at the tree she had been crouched in front of. "It wasn't dead," she non-sequiturs, skinny ankles sticking out past the hem of her yukata. But she didn't lose a sandal or anything, so...!
Her eyes follow after Umie's hands on her art supplies, but Yoko doesn't reach after to stop or shoo her off. "Thank you. I'm fine." It's a few more moments until Yoko places the familiar face, but she does. "Oh! Uh... Miss Combini."
Getting up, Yoko brushes herself off. "Are you here for the festival?" she asks.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"I'm not allergic to," Katsuya starts and stops, thinking about how these things have played out for him so far. ...He was allergic to that cat-like being with the Phantom Thieves, come to think of it. The look he wears is chagrined, almost. Maybe he is allergic to supernatural cats, too.
How... upsetting.
He doesn't finish that sentence. Umie may realize it's because he's a little embarrassed.
But maybe he has been overworking himself. Between his day job and the business they get into 'after hours', it's not a surprise if he's starting to feel the effects. He probably should take some vacation at some point, but at the same time... he does feel a little guilty about thinking about doing so. "Perhaps..." he acquiesces, shaking his head even so. "Well, we are at a festival." In other words, maybe this is some time off--
--but that's not why Umie called him, is it?
No sooner than they start to get down to business though--!
"It's alright. You're not hurt, are you? Let me help you," he says, trying to pick up the few small items after he helps her right herself.
He pauses midway to stare at her. "What... wasn't dead?"
He glances up at Umie, who seems to have also met her before at one time or another. He nods. "Yes, I do. This is Hirano-san, a student at Gekkoukan High School. We have encountered one another a few times," he explains, then pauses, a funny expression coming over his face. Hasn't he had that sense of 'a cat is around' every time that she's been...?
He finds that, suddenly, after yesterday's events, that he doesn't want to think about it too much.
"Yes, this is Umie Akabane, an acquaintance of mine." He pauses, thinking about how that sounds. Then, recalling what Tamaki had said -- about protesting too much -- he adds, "She used to tutor my younger brother." There. A reasonable explanation that is not an overreaction!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"I mean, if toys can become like the real thing," Umie starts off with a tilt of her chin, while carefully avoiding the word 'weapon', "in a space like that, couldn't allergies do the same thing?" Cognitive misery, in other words.
There is no escape.
"We imagine we *could* do a little bit of goofing off." Umie's lips thin out, instantly regretting her choice of words. Katsuya is not a person who 'goofs off'! "... Er, relax. That's the word I was looking for..."
But how can he relax when there's the topics of 'Old Maid' and 'Shiryuu Ryouhara is still out there but honestly I'm not really in danger, you're the one in danger'?
Umie's smile can't help but be a touch impish as she's identified, taking off her glasses and slipping them into her purse, and then lifting up her baseball cap by the bill. (For the record, her buns are near the nape of her neck in preperation for hat time.)
"Yep. Miss Combini."
What wasn't dead...?
"Oh. The cicada," Umie realizes, connecting the loud REEEEEEEE sound that happened moments before, as well as the sketches, as she had deposited those scattered supplies atop it.
A quick scan around, and she manages to spot the clear winged bug, kneeling down in front of it. ".... This little guy, right?"
Looking over her shoulder, Umie is about to mention the 'tutor' aspect when Katsuya, thinking along the same lines, beats her to it. "I wanted to seek his big brotherly advice on a few things." In a way, it's true. Sometimes.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Katsuya reaches out to help her up, and Yoko doesn't think twice about grasping his hand.
"I'm okay," she decides, after brushing herself off. Her things are quickly gathered up, but Yoko pauses in putting them away to stare over at Umie and the offending cicada. "..." Moving closer, she crouches down to gaze at it again, fingers folded on her knees. "Yes. It was that one."
Despite being an unpredictable source of unwarranted screams, it really is a pretty insect. In a cicada-y way. "You didn't need to attack me, you know," she frowns at it, as though gently rebuking a bug is a totally natural thing to do. She's not even a little bit embarrassed about it?!
But the explanation about tutoring does make sense. Umie seems ike she would have the patience teaching requires. Yoko already knows that Katsuya does.
She hasn't considered why she knows that. The thought's gone as soon as it arrived.
"Akabane-san. Do you like cicadas? You didn't try to squash it." Nobody is squashing any cicadas!! That's probably some kind of summer crime.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"Ah," says Katsuya quietly at that, because what else can you say when it's possible that because of the power of cognition, you're allergic to even things that don't express dander. Or at least, he... assumes they don't. It's hard to know for sure, and he's not about to ask random demons something like that.
There really is no escape, is there?
"Perhaps," he says, on the subject of 'relaxing' rather than 'goofing off'. Relaxation is normal, and an expected part of the human experience. 'Goofing off', though...
But such things are summarily interrupted! By... something that wasn't dead.
"Ah, it was a cicada..." Katsuya remarks, turning his head to spot the insect that Umie has cornered. "When I was a child, I used to try to catch those in the summertime. Of course, they usually got away." Helping Yoko to her feet, he stands slowly. He'll hand Yoko her dropped belongings after, then brushes off his pantlegs. "It is as Akabane-kun says," he confirms. "...So that cicada jumped into your face and startled you? They are harmless, but..." It's probably not an easy thing to remember when something is leaping right at you, especially if you thought it was dead, he supposes.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Somehow, the image of little Katsuya, being younger than both Yoko and Umie and catching cicadas, is a cute one. "... Somehow I find it hard to believe you were that little once," Umie teases, slightly, as Katsuya helps Yoko up.
'You didn't try to squash it.' Now kneeling in front of the cacophonous criminal cicada that Yoko pointed out, Umie looks over her shoulder, her face showing a slightly lopsided grin. "I mean, It's just minding its own business. Why would I ruin its day?"
"And yeah, Katsuya-san's right. They're completely harmless." Umie, of course, reaches out to touch the cicada with a red nail in demonstration.
WIth a crisp flick of wings, the alien bug takes to the air, and, because this is a shrine and no god dares to love Umie Akabane in this moment, it lands its meaty body against her face.
Be calm, Umie.
......
And indeed, her expression is very, very calm, but the burst of resonance that shoots out, like toothpaste out of a tube that just had a fist slam down on it, is the rough translaton of a moment of internal 'AHHHHHHHH' as the cicada fruitlessly REEEEEEEEEES its magnificently awkward body against Umie's flatly expressioned face.
AHHHHHHHHH.
REEEEEEEEEEE.
AHHHHHHHHH.
"..... ah," Umie mouths, as the cicada, having thrash around against her angled face, thumps against the soft ground to continue its mocking show of fearsome THHRTHRRTHRRTHR'ing in the dirt.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Has she ever tried to catch them? Surely, when she was younger. But Yoko doesn't have a net or a cage. And she's not sure she would want to take such a loud prize back to her dorm room. "Did you catch them with your brother?" Because that seems like a sibling thing to do together, doesn't it?
"It surprised me. It was still for a long time, and then it suddenly jumped and hit me in the face." Which was uncalled for, really.
She blinks after Umie as the older girl reaches out to demonstrate just how harmless the cicada is. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
"Do you think you could catch this one," Yoko muses, watching the cicada flutter helplessly in the dirt. She is Resonance-blind and thus her only exposure to Uie's feelings is that tiny, deadpan 'ah'. How calm and cool!!
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
"Well," says Katsuya slowly and carefully, "everyone was 'that young' once." He doesn't look at Umie once. Is he embarrassed? More importantly--
Did he ever catch them with his brother? "Maybe once or twice?" he hazards, as if he were uncertain. "It would have been a long time ago..."
This is a lie. He can clearly remember a time when he was thirteen trying to catch them in the late evening in the park with his little brother, who was all of five years old at the time. He thinks they only caught one in the end, and he'd taken care to go and release it outside after Tatsuya fell asleep that night. --But why is he thinking about this now? Shaking his head, he's just in time to watch Umie gently flick the bug with one red nail, and can but watch on mutely as it takes flight...
...right...
...at her face.
[CONCEPTUALIZATION] - (Hard - Success): See now the woes of Odysseus, of one hated by the very gods themselves!
[LOGIC]: But it's a cicada, not a curse.
(can he be sure about that)
He's not the most adept with resonance in general: sometimes he's been able to pick up on this and that. It was frankly some sort of fluke that he sensed Umie's the one time (or perhaps the hidden power of the sun god Helios -- no, it's not that at all). But as Umie's distress is flattened to the outside world, it must escape somewhere.
He starts forward, all of a sudden. "A-Akabane-kun, do you need assistance--"
No, because it's fallen off to land in the dirt, buzzing its irritation the whole while.
Could he catch this one? He did catch Fish-san after a few tries.
"Well... perhaps, but... where would we put it? It's best if it remained here," he explains.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'Did you catch them with your brother?' Umie glances towards Yoko, raising both eyebrows. "Oh, you know Tak-- I mean, Tatsuya-san too?" Is it weird that she can only imagine Tatsuya socializing with Yoko in a way that is either 'he didn't know what to do' or 'he was able to communicate silently, on vibes alone'.
And now, Umie's seemed to summon some of that same poker-faced mein Tatsuya would embody, with a twist.
Outwardly calm, inwardly screaming.
It's pretty much the reason Katsuya was able to find out, on that fateful day when he walked into the Triple 7, that Umie had a Persona.
(.... and somehow managed to not consciously know what they were called. Philemon was clearly asleep that day.)
".... I think I'm fine," Umie says to Katsuya. Not 'I'm fine', but 'I think I'm fine'. How is one not sure?
All that stands now is the matter of the cicada, which is not standing, for if it were standing, Umie would probably feel as if the gods had certainly cursed her.
"Maybe she means, get it off the ground," Umie finally says, her face breaking from that frozen look of intense stoicism. "Because it could be stepped on."
And Umie, like Odysseus, can't help but keep trying. Spreading her fingers out, she quickly attempts to scoop up the still flailing, upsidedown bug, its little legs instantly attaching to the soft, sensitive skin of her palms.
She makes a Face of someone who has Discovered a New Feeling: lips drawn taut, eyes staring ahead into whatever distant horizon that exists there, beyond the walls that guard the temple grounds.
BZZTBZZTBZTTZBZTTBZTT go her hands, like a buggy phone (ha ha ha) set on vibrate.
She stands from a squat, gaze frozen, and makes a few steps, one, two, three, FOURFIVE, attempting to release it against a tree trunk once it's completed its grand symphony. Turning her hands so that the cicada is right side up when she uncovers it, she murmurs a quiet little threat: "Don't you dare fly back out, you little-- bug."
Yoko's here, and this is a shrine. It wouldn't be proper.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Katsuya, it seems, is way more concerned than Umie. "She didn't even yell," Yoko reminds him. Umie is too cool for that. (The awe is subtle, but present.) "You don't need to take it home. We don't even have a jar to put it in." With a stick and a leaf, to recreate what it is used to.
Yoko doesn't have any intention of catching the cicada, but that just means it's open season for any other aspiring bug catchers to try, right? "I only met him once or twice," she shakes her head. It was entirely him not knowing what to do, but that was very likely not Yoko's fault. "But he said he didn't catch many of them when he was young."
She's quiet and still, almost comically so, as Umie approaches the cicada...! SCOOP. Her success brings a quiet, "Yaaaaaay..." from Yoko.
"It's okay," she turns her head briefly to reassure Katsuya. "You can always get the next one."
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Has Yoko met his brother? He has a moment to consider her, wondering. ...But even if she had, it's not as if she could tell him anything 'new' about his brother and his... circumstances.
Or whereabouts.
Or why he's insisting on going it alone. Even a meeting with his brother face to face hadn't done more than convince Katsuya that his brother is being extremely silly and reckless about this. Shouldn't he ask someone among them for help if he's in trouble?
But even as he's thinking about it, Yoko answers the question for him: only once or twice.
...
"...Ah," says Katsuya, readjusting his sunglasses. That's probably because he'd caught most of them.%R
But alas, Umie gets cicada'd.
She thinks she's okay.
"...I see," he says. Would he do better if it had been him? Yoko does tell him, after all, that she didn't even yell. She was very brave. "..."
He's not going to ruin her moment.
But maybe, Yoko means just get it off the ground? "--Ah, yes," Katsuya says, as if realizing that's probably what was meant. "A jar isn't a good home for a cicada. They're in the middle of an important part of their lifecycle right now, anyway." Which is, he recalls, finding a partner.
"..."
He's reminded that he's attending a wedding soon. ...He shouldn't be dwelling on it so much, he's still only twenty-five...
Umie moves to make the catch...!
He finds that he's holding his breath as she places it back on the tree. But it's a success.
Next time, he can catch the cicada, Yoko informs him, and Katsuya pauses for a long moment, as if he were uncertain how to advance on that.
"...Yes," he says, finally, because, it's not like he can think of a good reason to decline.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'She didn't even yell.' Translation: Umie squeezed that yell out through her resonance. If this had been a dangerous situation, that could have been deadly.
Thankfully, the only thing that *could* be deadly here is the temple in the background, and that... is more the fruit of Umie's own private delusions. She's making progress on those! (... She thinks.)
WIth luck, no one will ever know she had such fears to begin with.
"Tatsuya-san's a good person," she says, unbidden, but there's a decent enough reason for it. Tatsuya *can* be intense, sometimes.
But also, sometimes, adorably lost, just as much as his older brother can be when Umie teases him. (It's with a gentle touch, of course; some people are gifted her more biting humor, but it's not a common preference, in Japanese society.)
Though... "You talked about cicadas with him too, huh... perhaps this meeting is fate." Another proclamation, from the false oracle. And indeed, Katsuya, Umie *is* casting a subtle look in your direction. Do *not* let her down.
"... To find a mate," says the false oracle again, responding to the tail end of Katsuya's statement with a factoid he really didn't want to hear, at that moment. "I remember reading about it."
A jar is no place to find a mate.
But is a temple any better? With the sound of cicadas nearby, it's a likely yes; the cicada in Umie's hands seems to think so as well, taking stodgy steps to cling to the bark Umie's placed her hands next to.
She lets out a quiet breath of wonder, her gaze growing gentle. "There you go, little guy," she murmurs, her eyes softening. "Hope you have a better day, since you only have a limited amount of them."
She itches the cloth covering her right wrist, then readjusts both wristlets, turning around with a scuff of her sneakers. "Ta-da." She gestures towards the cicada, who--
--flies right back in Umie's face. "F--"
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Ah, she wasn't clear - Yoko meant that Katsuya said he hadn't caught many of them. She's never spoken with Tatsuya Suou about cicadas. Shouldn't she explain...?
Yoko does not explain.
"They're looking for mates. They'll die soon so they're trying hard." She sounds unbothered, but maybe that's just because there's a necessary disconnect between a student and the object of a few biology lessons. Or maybe Yoko admires the idea of throwing everything you have into trying to achieve something, create something.
Umie places the cicada onto the tree, its misadventure finally over--
Oh, it really did wake up and choose violence today, didn't it?
Yoko sighs at the cicada. "We just talked about this."
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
Alas, it's actually a misunderstanding here--
But not one that will likely ever be corrected.
Perhaps this is fine, though Tatsuya may be very confused if Umie ever talks to him about cicadas. Perhaps Katsuya's terrible lies about not remembering if he caught them with his brother more than a few times will come to light. Dastardly.
"He has much potential, if he would only apply himself," he says, of his brother. Supernatural situations are temporary. A good future life lost because his brother wouldn't study properly is forever!
Or... something like that.
But what's with that look? Is she-- "Well, I don't know about..." --really meaning-- "things like that..."
good enough
They'll die soon, so they're trying hard.
"Yes," he says in response to Umie and Yoko. "The same is true of many insects right now. It's best not to disturb them." A jar is no place to find a mate, indeed...
He lets the thought go. What will happen, will happen. At least, it's not something he should be dwelling on now, when there's a murderer to catch.
But it's true. Like the flowers in spring, a cicada's time in the sun is also limited. "I'm sure once it settles down, it--"
The cicada flies right back into Umie's face.
"Akabane-kun..."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"I suppose, when you're at this stage, the amount of time you need is only the amount needed to find a mate."
Don't let her down, Katsuya.
......
That is, don't let Umie Akabane look the fool in front of this impressionable youngster. She has a reputation to keep, after all.
"Trust me, I've tried to talk to him about it too. But he's much more stubborn than me." 'Stubborn' is an understatement: 'driven' may be a better word.
If they can put away the Old Maid for good somehow, will that stop it?
'They'll die soon, so they're trying hard.'
Is that what drives Tatsuya? A sense that time is running out, being stuck in a body he sees as rightfully belonging to someone else?
..... no. No. That's stupid. That *is* his body, he's not just some space alien...
*PLOP*
Ganbatte, Cicada-san.
'Akabane-kun...' Whether it was a simple reflection of Umie's current misfortune, that near cuss dies in Umie's throat before it could be uttered. Katsuya has done his part in keeping the public peace.
This time, thankfully, the cicada flops back onto the tree, rather than fall onto the dirt.
Umie coughs. "... Let's leave before it decides I'm its type. Hirano-san, want to join us for some festival snacks? Maybe there's some stalls already set up..."