2026-02-08: Cleaning Up the Ruins
- Log: 2026-02-08: Cleaning Up the Ruins
- Cast: Akihiko Sanada, Mitsuru Kirijo
- Where: Iwatodai Dormitory
- OOC Date: February 08, 2026
- IC Date: September 22, 2012
- Summary: Akihiko and Mitsuru clean up a bit after the mess Strega made, and talk about their own respective guilt on not being there for their charges. Together, they resolve to become stronger. And perhaps, find a way to strike back against Strega.
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
It's been maybe two weeks since the attack on the SEES dorms, and Akihiko is helping pick up after the mess. Sure, Mitsuru is going to have repairs done herself, but... It feels like a tiny bit of repentance Akihiko can make for completely missing the entire affair. He should have been there. And his best friend has been involved with Strega... It's a bit frustrating, honestly.
Anyways. At least Akihiko can easily help picking up and clearing debris. It's this process in the main dorm room that he can easily be found.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
She should have been there.
Just like Akihiko Sanada, this is the refrain that has been plaguing Mitsuru Kirijo's thoughts for the last week and a half. It's not the only one -- her concerns, and anger, over Shinjiro have been her constant companion as well, not to mention the simple fact that their enemies could simply blitz what was meant to be a safe space so easily.
One was at least slightly tempered in the wake of her conversation with Shinjiro. The other...
... that one will require a fiercer touch.
"You don't need to do that, Akihiko."
Her voice is as collected and poised as ever as it speaks up just behind Akihiko. There she stands at the liminal space between the lobby grounds and the stairway in that simple sleeveless cream turtleneck and black pants affair she's so fond of, arms folded under her chest and dark red brows furrowed.
"The cleaners will be here tomorrow," she continues, knowing it isn't really why Akihiko is here, trying to do something. "You needn't worry; they work for the Kirijo Group to handle matters like this. They will be discreet."
The furrow of her brows deepens. A frown crosses her lips. "... By tomorrow it will look as if this never happened."
But it did. And repairs don't wipe away memories.
They linger like a scar.
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
Akihiko's gaze turns towards the stairs. "Yo, Mitsuru." He greets her, with a two finger wave. He tosses a piece of wood to the side. "Honestly, I'm surprised it's taken this long for the repair team to arrive." He jokes lightly. Pushing his feelings down as they're both used to doing.
For his part, Akihiko has not yet changed out of his summer school uniform. A red vest rests comfortably over his short sleeved dress shirt. "It's only polite to clean up a bit before the cleaners arrive." He says, remaining chipper all the while. "Besides, it's good training." Back on his same old.
Usually, he'd leave it at that. But... "You know it's not as easy as that, Mitsuru. We should have been there." He isn't blaming Mitsuru. 'we' means him. "This is the least I can do with these feelings of inadequacy."
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
Akihiko jokes about the cleaners, as is his wont.
Mitsuru sighs an indefatigable sigh, as is hers.
She does, at least, manage a rueful kind of smile.
"I was given to understand such wait times were normal," she jokes (??) back.
But her gaze is still focused on Akihiko's work. Her brows are still furrowed. And her smile swiftly dissolves towards a more neutral line of thought as he makes his excuses. She's silent for a while, after he talks about the benefits of cleaning for his regimen, as if unwilling to even humor that much.
Because the real problem is...
We should have been there.
"..."
Silence reigns just a bit longer. Outside of Akihiko's field of vision, it might be an open question if Mitsuru is still there--
Until she's suddenly moving to crouch down next to him, picking up pieces of shattered tile to pile on her delicately manicured palm.
"We should have," she finally says as she works, with a certain emphasis in that 'we' as if to deny any attempt to exempt her from the blame. "... Sometimes it feels like I have done nothing but fail them all from the outset."
Scarlet lips part out an exhale. And Mitsuru shakes her head, continuing her work alongside him.
"We can't change the past, Akihiko. ... But we can endeavor to make up for it in the present, at the least."
What is all this for, if that isn't possible, after all?
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
"Normal for regular people, maybe." Akihiko jokes back. Even if it's just a moment, it's nice to go back and forth with his old friend.
There's a poignant pause, as Akihiko isn't quite sure if Mitsuru is just thinking hard on what she'd like to say. When she pops back into his vision, he smiles softly. He crouches down too, working on taking the bigger items out of the way, with the smaller debris into a trashcan.
"You know that's not true, Mitsuru." Akihiko says of Mitsuru failing them. "No one's dead yet, thank god. And this should work as a wake up call, for us to work a little harder." That's always what it comes back down to it, huh? Working harder. Growing stronger. Is that all they can do?
"Have you spoken to Shinji yet?" Akihiko asks. "All I've heard is some rumblings, but... I'll be able to talk with him soon."
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
She knows that's not true.
No one's dead yet. Thank god.
Shards of tile fall into the trashcan with the discordant clink of ceramic.
"..."
Mitsuru elects to focus on Akihiko's second observation: "A wake up call," she echoes as she turns back towards gathering debris, "yes. But it's more than that." They could have lost so much-- "Strega has shown they are far more of a problem than we anticipated."
And possess far more secrets and enigmatic support, too. Just what is Strega? Is it really the New World Order supporting them? It doesn't _feel_ right.
"If we leave them be, things will simply get worse. I refuse to let this go unanswered."
And she refuses to accept that uncertainty.
As if inflamed by her own frustration, Mitsuru works that much harder; she is in the middle of picking up a chunk of collapsed bookshelf when Akihiko asks his question. Has she spoken to Shinjiro? ...
Mitsuru pauses for a moment in the middle of their cleaning, a frown creasing at her lips.
"... Oui. I have," she says, after that momentary delay. Her tone is drawn towards that painstakingly composed professionalism as she answers, like the professionalism made an immaculate shield to her own raw emotions. "And I intend to make sure he talks to you, too."
Wood tilts in fair hands in a slow rotation. She loved this book shelf. How many nights had she sat down with a book from that shelf during the Dark Hour? ... How much more could they have lost?
"The information he gave them are things they might have discovered in time, but..." She should have known. She should have been told. She should have been able to figure it out her own damn self. She should have-- "Akihiko, we need to make sure the others are protected. Both in the Dark Hour, and outside of it; we don't know what lengths these people will go to, and now they have the names and faces of all our people." Her brows furrow. "No more solo patrols during the Dark Hour. That includes you as well. I need you to help me make sure the others don't go out on their own."
But she's avoiding the real issue, isn't she? Silence settles again, but only for a shorter while before:
"I knew Aragaki got his Evoker from them," she admits, dark red eyes narrowing. "I knew, when I recruited him back in to SEES. I should have pressed him for more information then, but I..."
couldn't think of anything but refusing to accept he was dying
"... was so focused on getting him back that I let it slip through the cracks. And now..."
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
It feels awful. Being on the backfoot with Strega. Not to mention the focus and pressure each Full Moon Shadow puts on them. Without proper preparation, something will give. It's not something SEES can afford.
"Unanswered, huh?" Akihiko echos Mitsuru this time. The thought starts getting him amped up, just a little bit. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting...?" Striking at Strega themselves this time. "Do we even know where their hideout is?" Shinji ought to know. At worst, Akihiko can go and find out himself.
Akihiko on his part, picks up some remains of couch and tosses it into the garbage. It's gonna be real nice to see everything set back up soon.
Something scratches a bit weird though. Make sure Shinji talks to him? Is Shinji avoiding him? Akihiko lets it float by for now. There's no point in putting needless pressure on Mitsuru. More than she's already putting on herself.
The thought of his solo patrols behing put on hold... Akihiko goes to object, but ends up holding his tongue. Shinj...was leaking information. The thought is tough to deal with. He should have known. There's kids here who could've died.
Still. "...I can't blame you, Mitsuru. I would have ignored the warning signs too. For him to join us again." Akihiko did. Actively. He probably wouldn't even change his blind faith in Shinji either.
"Yeah. I'll stick closer to the dorms." He says finally, on the top of patrols. "I've been trying to get some of the younger members training more too. We have to be prepared." A pause. "And whatever else Strega is planning, we'll be strong enough to win flat out. Or keep such a thing from happening in the first place."
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
There's so many questions left lingering about Strega for Mitsuru. In the abstract, just who is really empowering them and funneling resources to them. Kirijo drugs, Kirijo technology. Is it defectors? People in the Nanjo Konzern?
And in the immediate, more pertinent sense... Akihiko is right. They don't even know where these people are hiding -- if they even have a base of operations and aren't just operating in cells. But these?
Akihiko will be able to tell by the way those sharp eyes of Mitsuru's seem lost in intense thought as he makes his point: the wheels are already turning. Mitsuru's already coming up with a strategy to deal with just that. Perhaps she has been.
If there's one thing similar about the both of them, it's that basic inability to stay content with stillness and inaction.
... And also, to brush off their own problems. Maybe it's something Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Shinjiro all share.
It hurts, as Akihiko talks about Shinjiro. How he assures that he, too, would have overlooked the warning signs. She shuts her eyes for a moment. It doesn't feel right. She promised Shinjiro... she wouldn't speak about his condition to Akihiko. But that clock is running out, faster and faster. And when it does...
"I worry about how the others in the group will see him now," she confesses instead in response -- a truth, just a different one. "Trust is... difficult to build back. I know that better than most. If I had known sooner, I could have..."
Protected him? Insulated him? She stops herself. It's the wrong way of thinking, and she knows it.
Her, and her family, covering for their tragic mistakes is no small part of how they got here, isn't it?
"... Thank you, Akihiko," she says instead, around a soft exhale, as he relents on the patrols. "You're right. We need to remain sharp, in both body and mind." She side-eyes Akihiko slightly, here. "That includes you as well."
The All-Seeing Eye of Kirijo is on you now, Akihiko. You won't be able to escape studying via excessive training, this time--!
"As to your other question... yes. I am suggesting exactly that." Standing up so that she may move that chunk of bookshelf towards the larger debris pile, she straightens, wipes her hands, and turns back towards Akihiko to regard him directly. "We do not know where they're hiding. But we do know what they want." To stop SEES from ending the Dark Hour. They, apparently, made that abundantly clear. Her brows furrow faintly, one hand settling on her hip as a pensive frown creases her lips.
"... Aragaki provided me with notes detailing everything he knew about Strega's current membership. Names, abilities, what personal details he was aware of. There is one of them, Chidori Yoshino, who did not take active part in the battle... but has the power to block our Navigators' scanning abilities. I believe that is how they were able to so effectively surprise us, and how they remain so hard to spot. If we remove her from the board, we may be able to cripple their ability to maneuver against us."
A dark brow lifts, fractionally. And despite the circumstances, a smile crosses her lips. "We may not know where they're hiding, but when you're hunting elusive prey, sometimes the best way to deal with them is not to try to chase them down. Sometimes it's better to let them come to you."
Sometimes you need bait.
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
Akihiko has always felt comfortable going all out when Mitsuru is at his back. There is very little they couldn't solve together.
(It also makes the attack on the dorms all the more frustrating, doing so when both of them were away.)
It's also just a kind of loyalty forged from going through hell together, those first few years of SEES.
"...Well, we can't force everyone to be friends." Akihiko replies, on the topic of Shinji. "We ought to make sure that they can trust their backs to each other, at least." That kind of trust is hard to come by. And can't just come down to third year decree.
...Obviously, Akihiko doesn't know what's waiting for him around the corner. "Let's wrap Shinji into this too. If he's helping us more than he's helped Strega... That could really help his perception at least."
Hey, he's actually good at exams...! The insinuation misses Akihiko though. "I'll be careful not to strain myself." He says with a smirk. "I'm not about to get injured like that again soon, when I have so many people I need to protect."
Akihiko follows Mitsuru's train of thought. If she creates the strategies, Akihiko is more than happy to forge the way forward with tactics.
"If we choose our field of engagement well, a small team should be able to wrap around and find this Yoshino." Akihiko is happy to complete the thought. "At worst, we could easily force a surrender. At best..." He's sure he doesn't need to finish that thought.
<Pose Tracker> Mitsuru Kirijo has posed.
"Yes. I suppose you're right."
Mitsuru Kirijo is slowly coming to accept that she cannot put the entire weight of the world on her shoulders.
... but that doesn't mean there isn't a part of her constantly screaming that people should just let her micromanage them into perfect harmony.
Listen. Being Type A is difficult.
"I was thinking the same," the Kirijo heiress continues as Akihiko suggests roping in Shinjiro, a satisfied smile finally finding its way back to her lips as they fall once more onto the same wavelength. "It would go a long way to show his dedication. He also knows Strega and their members better than any of us; he would have a significant advantage in anticipating their movements. And more to the point... I think more than anything, Aragaki wants to make amends."
Her brows furrow faintly. "... After everything he has been through, he deserves the chance to prove himself."
Of course Akihiko would completely fail to notice her not-so-subtle hint not to tunnel vision on training; she can't help but smile a bit ruefully at that. It's fine; of everyone in SEES, he's certainly far from being a subject of concern as far as studies go.
She may or may not have a priority list of which Junpei Iori may or may not aggressively occupy the top of.
Still. What matters right now is they have a plan. A plan that Akihiko begins to rapidly flesh out.
"Précisément," she declares with the crisp snap of her fingers. "I'll let you handle who to bring onboard. Though if I may, I'd suggest Reiya Aomori. I think you'll find his skillset a perfect fit for this." It always feels good, talking to him about missions. Over these years, developing this rhythm, this rapport... there's a certain satisfaction in knowing there's someone you can trust implicitly.
"... Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, we'll be able to make up for all of this."
... It's not something she wishes to compromise. For anything.