2026-01-01: Finding Maria After School
- Log: Finding Maria After School
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Maria Sakurai
- Where: Seven Sisters High School / Streets of Rengedai
- OOC Date: jan 01 2026
- IC Date: Mon Sep 03 2012
- Summary: Tsubasa lurks out in front of Seven Sisters, after the first day of school, hoping to find Maria. Unfortunately, they're dressed in a Kasugayama boys' uniform, so the Sevens boys hate that. Fortunately, Maria uses her exceptional tattling powers to disarm the situation, and so Tsubasa is able to check on her after her harrowing experience... plus a few go-betweens from the things their 'friend' Phoenix 'told' them. Maria gets the numbers of a couple of helpful adults!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
It's after the first day of school; Tsubasa actually attended their classes, for once. But they've been asking around about something, and so...
... after school, they head out to hang out in front of the Seven Sisters' High School, leant against a tree with their arms folded as they watch who's filing out after school with a scowl over their face.
There's just one problem with that: they're in the Kasugayama boys' uniform, sleeves rolled up and the bottom half of their shirt unbuttoned and tied about their midsection, which is covered by a neon blue and black binder which manages to make the way they're wearing their pants low on their hips a little less scandalous, too. (A little. When will no-good punk boys learn to pull their pants up?) With their magenta and green hair and their tan which is so deep and fake they may as well be orange, they sure do stick out, even before getting to the white and cyan makeup across their face.
Which means they manage to blend into the shadows for about, oh... about as long as it takes some of the blokes to shore up together and bring a group of them over to the tree they're lurking at.
"Hey, Cuss trash!" The leader of the boys calls out, as he steps forward. "Who said you could hang out around here?! You need to leave, you're scaring the girls off!"
Tsubasa shrugs, sinking a bit further against the trunk of that tree. "Ain't here to fight," they say, diverting their gaze off of that boy. (Past him. They're still watching the entrance.) "Jus' lookin' fer someone."
"Tch... who would want to see someone like you, huh?" The boy asks, folding his own arms.
"Uh... name a Maria Sakurai," Tsubasa offers, after a breath of hesitation.
"Eh? The girl who got caught up in that big accident? ... why are you creeping on Sevens' girls, punk?!" The boy's surprise doesn't last long, before he remembers why he's so offended.
"I ain't creepin'," Tsubasa insists, scowl deepening. "Jus' wanna see she's okay --"
The boy steps forward, shoving Tsubasa off of their tree with a firm hand to their shoulder, as he insists: "Can it! She doesn't wanna see a guy like you, right, boys?!"
"Yeah!"
"Too right!"
"You said it!!"
"I ain't here to..." Tsubasa starts, only to have to take a few steps back, because this guy's really getting testy, now.
Which also means... it looks like something EXCITING is happening out in front of school!
Looks like something to INVESTIGATE!
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Hey! What's going on?"
So calls out a particular, familiar voice rapidly approaching Tsubasa and the boys' location.
School is back in session for Sumaru, and some things really don't ever change. Like the rivalry (if you can call it that) between Seven Sisters High and 'Cuss High'. Or the fact that--
"Stop crowding the gate!"
--'boys' from Cuss High apparently always want to come by Sevens to try to pick up girls, even if the student body for the former really is much more diverse now. Or at least, that's sure what it looks like is happening.
"If you don't get out of the way, I'll tell a teacher!"
It's even a familiar style of threat, at least, probably, to Tsubasa's ears.
Someone has to give. Even all the stonewalling in the world from the most dedicated white knight has never met the unstoppable force of Maria Sakurai and her threats to invoke a higher authority. And when they do, the form of a familiar young student will be revealed to Tsubasa.
"Oh, Seki-kun! It's been a while!"
The last time they'd met, face-to-face, Maria had a ponytail down to the middle of her back. The last time they'd met in truth (with Tsubasa as Phoenix and Maria as herself), Maria had just had her hair briefly set on fire by Joker; even if put out quickly afterwards, she'd still suffered at a glance serious damage to her hair at least.
Her hair's short, now, and barely past her ears. She peers at Tsubasa curiously, tilting her head to one side.
"Is something wrong? Oh!" Her eyes go wide. "Are you coming to school at Sevens now?"
...Well... at least Maria is still Maria. ...probably.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Uh, can ya jus' --" Tsubasa starts, as they hear Maria's voice, only for that boy to shove them again.
"Whatever it is you're looking for," the boy's going on, bold as brass, "you're not going to find it! You better clear off, or we'll show you how Sevens cleans up the trash!"
"Hey, dude, that girl --" one of his buddies tries to start, but he's not listening.
Not until --
"Uh," Tsubasa starts, looking quite concerned. But they're not the only one worried -- because Sevens boys are at least worried about being told on.
"Okay, okay!" They complain, as they disperse. "We were just looking out for the school, geez..."
"Yo, Sakurai-san." Tsubasa does stare at her hair for a moment, before they orient back to reality. "Uh. Nah, nah, check th' uniform," they shake their head, shoving their hands in their pockets. (They're not wearing the uniform right, though!) "I jus', uh... c'mon, les' walk 'n talk."
look they really want to get away from the front of sevens everyone is looking at them like they've brought a terrible disease to rengedai
"... I got this friend," Tsubasa explains, as they go. "Name a Phoenix... they said you were dealin' with some shit recent-like. So... I wanted to, like... see if you was cool. Y'know?"
Looking forward, they add, quietly: "... I get it if shit's rough, too. I got attacked by th' Joker Killer, too, so... yeah."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
They don't listen at first, of course.
"Let me through, okay?"
Not until--
"I can run real fast, you know! I can get the teacher out here in a blink of an eye!"--they've no choice but to listen.
Maria is one of the stranger girls in the school. Unfortunately, she's also pretty friendly and easy to get along with. Therein lies the essential rub.
She gives the last complainer a little fingerwaggle of a wave. "It's fine, it's fine, I'll take care of myself!" Which, uh, given recent events this year, may be a point they could argue, but--
"Oh, right." Maria pauses for just the moment. "Oh, but maybe you don't have your new one yet?" --Maria, they just said they weren't, please get on board with reality and stop substituting your own. "But, um-- okay!" She pauses, looking concerned as she eyes Tsubasa. "Did something happen?"
Which is a hell of a thing to ask someone else when you were the one targetted by the Joker, got to watch him almost kill someone else about your age, and, oh yes, were set on a fire (just a little bit).
Swinging her schoolbag behind her thighs, Maria trails at a pace slightly behind Tsubasa. "So, what's going on?"
Tsubasa has this friend, you see.
"Eeeh? You know Phoenix? But they were so cool! I think they saved me!" Pause. Pause, pause, pause. "Well, and everyone else! ...They said it was an explosion, you know, and didn't listen when I said it was the Joker Killer. I started thinking, maybe I dreamed it up? It's not like I can talk to Takeshi-kun after what I did."
Another long, long pause.
"...If I really did do that, and I didn't dream it. Um. It wasn't a dream, right?"
Maria may be extremely susceptible to gaslighting.
"But, I'm fine, actually! Um. My grandmother cried. And so did my mother. And dad even came home for a couple days. But it's like everything's back to normal..." She reaches out to brush the ends of her hair. "...Almost, anyway."
Another pause.
"What?? You got attacked, too? Oh! Did Phoenix save you?!"
Sometimes even a blind pig can turn up a truffle.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Nah, I'm cool at Kasugayama. All me shit's there. Jus' visitin'." Did... was that a joke? Tsubasa, you need to stop scowling when you say a joke. That's how jokes work.
Luckily, Tsubasa escapes from the complainers before they can find anything more to complain about. ... though, would Maria just send them packing even if they did? This girl is a tour de force.
Tsubasa looks forward, which, given Maria's trailing behind, hopefully disguises how pleased they look hearing Maria call them cool. "Heh... yeah, they do that." (Keep it together, dude, she doesn't know that's you. ... but man, they did kinda help save her, huh?)
But they told her it wasn't the Joker Killer too, huh...
"You didn't dream it," Tsubasa confirms, looking back to her so she knows they're not just reassuring her. "They told me it wasn't the Joker Killer, either... both times I ran into him. Th' first time, they said it was gangs what attacked Kasugayama. Th' second... they tried to say I started those fires in Aoba Park, man. Someone's real invested in makin' sure th' truth don't get out... but I believe you saw th' Joker Killer. If you still feel like you're not sure... can give you th' numbers've a couple people, uh, Phoenix said was there. Watanabe-san an' her sister, Shimizu-san... they're adults. But like, you can trust 'em."
Tsubasa can't exactly say they know for a fact she saw him, after all. But... Big Sis and her even bigger sis are both honest about who they are, and Tsubasa trusts them not to lie to Maria's face.
(They don't know about Ayame's husband kind of having to.)
"Sounds like ya family really cares about ya... that's good. Musta been rough, tho'. Saw ya hair... Joker Killer toasted me wigs, when I met him. Woulda been worse if I couldn't just toss 'em off..."
They pause, for a moment, in their own reply. "Yeah," they decide, after a moment. "Th' second time, anyway -- first up, it was this girl called Ogre an' some others what saved me. Shimizu-san was there back then, too... that's how I know she's reliable," they offer, by way of explanation, even though they know Shinobu's reliable because of way more than that. Streamlined explanations for Maria! "Ogre was there th' second time, too... an' a lotta other people. It was thanks to Phoenix I got outta the burnin' buildin' th' Killer trapped me in, tho'... I was able to escape 'cuz they showed up on th' field." Which is a logical explanation for how Phoenix appeared as soon as they disappeared.
(Thank God the Will of Rebellion is helping them out.)
"Uh, hey..." They pause, turning to Maria as they grab their phone out of their pocket. "Some scary shit happens again, you can ring me, y'know? Tryin' to clean me act up, but I ain't above punchin' a guy if he's bein' a prick... an' if it's the kinda shit what don't even make sense, I can get in touch with Phoenix, get them on it. You ain't, like... gotta deal with shit like this on ya own. Like, even if it's something you gotta do yourself, I get it... but havin' a guy in ya corner makes sure you ain't get cornered, y'know? Backup's saved me a dozen times."
This also gives them the excuse to make sure Maria gets the Helpful Adults' numbers, of course.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
By all rights, she's the sort of girl who should get bullied for being weird (especially like this) but... is it possible that she's impossible to bully because she just... wouldn't get it...?
Well, probably not, but. One might well wonder.
"Oh," says Maria, and she sounds a little disappointed and a little relieved in the same breath. "That's good, I think? I mean, I'd want to know what what really happened. But..." But it means she really did call the Joker Killer, doesn't it? She didn't just imagine that, and hallucinate or dream the rest, like the doctor at the hospital said, and like the police detective who came in to talk to her about what happened had said. Joker Killer incidents are on the wane, says the news; the police should have everything under control soon. (If it continues like this, though, won't no one trust the police when the killings do continue to happen under the flimsiest of coverups?)
But that's not of any of Maria's immediate concern. "Twice!" she exclaims, her hand rising to cover her mouth. "Wow! And, you got away okay? That's really scary! I-- Takeshi-kun's friend was really badly hurt. Um," she hazards, glancing away from Tsubasa, "He's recovering. Okay, I mean. I should go see him and apologize, but, um..." She shakes her head. "...If they told him it wasn't me..." Who caused it, that is, "then..."
It's not like a sin disappears if no one remembers it.
"...maybe it's just better that I don't. Maybe, he should get to forget what really happened. Takeshi-kun, too. Um..."
She nods, as Tsubasa mentions some of the Actual Adults who had been there. "That might be a good idea, actually? I, um... I feel like I should say 'sorry' to someone! Mom always said it was important to make it up when you do something bad... but I don't know what to do," Maria sighs, as if unaware that Tsubasa shouldn't and 'wouldn't' know what she's talking about.
"My hair... yeah," she says, shaking her head slightly to feel absence of her ponytail. "Actually, it's not so bad? It was kind of a pain. My grandmother says it will grow out again in time, but I kind of like it better like this. Mom helped me clean it up a little bit. I think it could look even better if I slicked the bangs back like," she pauses a moment here in her tracks to push her hair back. "I'd need some gel or something. What do you think? Cute? Or, too boyish?"
"Ogre, huh? She reminded me of one, you know? Like, with the club and everything? And there were all these weird phantom people. I looked at them, and it was like they were half-way there? Like ghosts, right? Do you think they were guardian spirits looking out for everyone?" Wait, what is she talking about-- Personas?
"That's super scary! Inside a burning building? I can't imagine anything like that!" Maria affirms, shaking her head. "It was bad enough when he got me! If that prince hadn't been there, I might have been in a lot of trouble... It's not every day you get saved by a prince, though!"
But Tsubasa makes them an offer -- an offer that involves exchanging numbers (in a sense). "Oh! Uh, sure!" Maria says, swinging her bag around and fishing out her own phone. "I'm going to try to stay out of trouble, but-- it's good to know someone's on my side, right? And..." And it's occured to even her that the Joker Killer might well come back at her again.
"Yeah. That Phoenix guy could help if it gets really bad. It's kind of like having your own personal super hero on call, though!" Maria says, giggling a little at the thought.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Man. Tsubasa isn't sure if she's Weird Like That or her own kind of space case, but, like, they really feel like someone oughta be lookin' out for Maria.
Or several someones. She might need, like, a whole village. That's what that saying means, right?
"It's good to know it really happened," Tsubasa suggests, "jus' sucks it happened." They know a thing or two about being gaslit themself; they'd say it's better to know something's true, even if it's worse than the lie.
They nod, when Maria gasps. "Yeah. It was... real scary. There was this kid, th' first time, a first-year called Atsushi Kazama... he got hurt real bad, tho' last I heard he's doin' okay. Me an' a guy called Jun-kun tried to get him out, but... we weren't good at fightin' that shit. Took me a while to visit him, too... an' I didn't know him none."
Tsubasa shakes their head. "Uh. Phoenix told me 'bout all that," they offer, in explanation, to help Maria with how they know what she's talking about. "Look... sometimes shit happens 'cuz you did it. An' sometimes it's bad. But if you thinkin' of them like that, means you thinkin' 'bout it. Learnin' somethin'. An' the only way you really fuck up if you fuck up is if you pretend you never did, yeah? So long as you own up to it to yourself an' the people you gotta, you'll be okay."
A long, deep breath, as they look forward again. "But from what I heard 'bout your situation... that Takeshi-san weren't good to you. A guy like that... I can't recommend goin' back to him an' ownin' up, 'cuz he might jus' use that to dig inta ya brain more. If ya do... take some backup, yeah?" They pause, lightly. "... jus' 'cuz ya got heated an' made a mistake, that don't mean he ain't hurt ya neither. When we broke up, I hit me ex-boyfriend, too... if you jus' looked at that, I'd be a real shithead. But it weren't th' first time he hurt me, neither."
wait are people in boy's uniforms allowed to date boys, like, is this a thing you get to do if you're a theythem or --
"Anyway," Tsubasa shakes their head, looking back to Maria. Scrutinising her for a moment, even! "That's definitely cute. Glad it's gonna work for ya."
They look surprised when Maria seems to recognise Ogre -- has she gotten into Supernatural situations before?? Questions for later, because right now, they need to work out how to handle that whole guardian spirit thing. "Uh," they say, eloquently. "You... saw, uh, somethin' like that?" if they tell her about personas does that mean she gets a persona is this like some kind of weird movie curse this is too much pressure what the fuck okay tsubasa stop staring like a gaping moron and use your words for the love of god, "..."
NO, NOT LIKE THAT! YOU NEED TO MOVE AIR THROUGH YOUR THROAT FIRST!
"Uh... yeah! Guardian spirits, man! Uh, some of 'em are cool, an some of 'em are dicks, an' it just kinda depends on who they runnin' with. So, like... if you run into a guy who's bad news, an' it seems like he got somethin' like that... get outta dodge."
Okay, that's probably an explanation which doesn't pass the Mummy curse on or whatever. Good job Tsubasa, you're a genius. (Thanks, brain!)
"... yeah," they nod, their stern expression won back, when they get to the burning building. "It was real scary. Still... real glad that Prince saved ya." Even if that Prince is fraught for them right now, they're not going to bring all that to Maria. Let her have her storybook save, man.
"Yeah, man. Good to have a lotta guys on ya side." Alongside their number, they give her Shinobu Shimizu and Ayame Watanabe's, even though it feels so weird to give the full names of adults, who calls an adult by their first name?!
Still... a personal super hero...
"Heh," Tsubasa cracks a grin, briefly. "I'm gonna tell them you said that, they'll get a real kick outta it." Technically, the kick has already been kicked, but they're working with the truth.
"We gon' make sure next time someone tries to ruin ya life like that, you got more options," they offer her a more subdued smile, for a moment, before their usual scowl returns. "Yeah? You ain't in this shit alone."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Yeah..." says Maria, whose heart might well rest easier if it had just been a bad dream of some sort.
But part of making up for a mistake is not running away from it.
"Did he-- oh, good, he's okay... It's wrong that people who aren't even involved get hurt," she declares, frowning as if this were the thing that bothered her the most about all that had happened. "If it was just me, or... even if it was just me and Takeshi-kun-- I mean, I didn't want him to get hurt, really, either! ...Not like that. But, that guy wasn't involved at all, and he got hurt the worst. If Watanabe-sensei wasn't there to help, I don't know what could have happened. ...Maybe should talk to him, too," she adds, glancing away. "But, since we came back to school I've been worried that it wasn't even real. And..."
Tsubasa explains that they heard all about it, though. "Oh." She realizes, then, from the expression on her face, that she'd said a little too much. But it's also something that, apparently, Phoenix told Tsubasa about. "...They really are a superhero," she remarks, glancing down at her shoes. "But... what I did. I know it's messed up," Maria says, letting it all come out like she's in confessional, "I didn't-- it's not because he broke up with me. I'm not like that! He's-- he's the kind of guy who dates a girl, then dumps her, right? And, the girl he dumped me for, he dumped her, too, and I thought... I thought I wanted to stop him doing that. It's not against the law, so I can't tell the police..."
Her shoulders slouch.
"But... he shouldn't die for that. Not really."
Even if she thought she wanted that in the moment.
"--Sorry, sorry. I, um..."
Tsubasa goes on, though. She'd heard about her situation. That 'prince' back then, too. Are there really people who know everyone's secrets and go about righting wrongs like that? It's definitely some kind of 'superhero' business. No doubt about it.
"...Yeah. And," she says, feeling like a worm squirming on the sidewalk after the rain, "I... don't know that I really want to? Alone? Maybe with someone else it'd be different, but..." she hedges, thinking about how he'd looked while he was under attack and how she'd felt during that moment he'd broken up with her. "...but I should do something..." But what does that even look like??
Tsubasa leads into an explanation about how their relationship with their ex was similarly fraught, and how, wait, boyfriend?
Maria, with an expression like a confused dog, looks at Tsubasa as if trying to parse this one out herself.
Fortunately for them, they're easily able to cut her metaphorical legs out under her by saying she looks cute like that. "R-really? Um, thanks!" Maria says, blushing. But then she goes on to ask a particularly problematic sort of question.
And.
"Oh, so it's a superhero power! They've got guardian spirits!" Maria declares, nodding once as if to say she completely understands. ...If only more of these conversations with other people could go over so easily -- but most people don't come from Planet Maria.
"Right! I'll leave superhero business to superheroes!" Maria declares with a grin and a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about it!"
Definitely no curse passed on here. Definitely.
"Thank you!" she chirps as the phone numbers are handed over. "Watanabe-san is Watanabe-sensei's wife, but it might be easier to talk to her, actually. It's a little... um, weird to talk to my teacher about this?" she says, as if it were the most awkward thing that she could think of in a whole month of awkward. "But, thanks again," she says, tucking her phone away. "If stuff like this is going on, it's good to know who I can talk to. That Joker Killer guy... that's not someone normal," she says, in probably the most down-to-earth thing she's said yet. "I was really scared, you know. But... I also didn't want anyone to get hurt, even if I did."
'Next time' is pretty scary to think about. But at least 'next time' she doesn't have to go it alone. "And don't worry. I'm not going to do something like that again."
Which is to say, dial up someone to kill someone else.