2026-02-13: Where's the Locket?
- Log: ... Where's the Locket?
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Ichika Kawase
- Where: Kasugayama / Third-Floor Apartment, Hirasaka
- OOC Date: 2026-02-13
- IC Date: Tue, Sep 25 2012
- Summary: Shiryuu left specific instructions: Tsubasa's locket would appear in Kasugayama during the Dark Hour after they escaped, and only then. Exhausted, traumatised, and out of space to reason about it, they go to Kasugayama to claim it alongside Ichika, because at least if they have warning they can warn her. Once they get back, they share some aggrieved details of their plight... because Ichika's the one person they don't have to front around. But Ichika needs to get stronger, too...
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
11:00 pm
Tsubasa's phone vibrates, incessantly, on the bedside table.
"Nuh," Tsubasa grunts, as they lift a hand to grope blindly for it. "Fuck..."
They told Ichika they had to go out tonight. And they told her it had to be tonight.
That doesn't mean it's not going to be tough.
... there are other reasons one might visit the bathroom with retching noises than the obvious. Stress does it, too.
They gave themself an hour for this, even though it doesn't take nearly that long to walk to school, because they can barely walk as it is.
11:60 pm
Let's skip the preceding moments, and settle on tock.
Approaching Kasugayama when it's dark is a dodgy prospect; when the sky is green, it's dodgier still.
"Eeeeh?" Nekomata demands, wearing a schoolgirl's blouse tied around her waist and a skirt longer than protocol. "After school hours, this is our turf!" She insists, as her gang of cats hiss in unison.
"Fuckin'..." Phoenix grumbles, as they bring their blade to hand.
They have even less patience when it's Jack Frost insisting he's the real, absolute, end-of-all-times Ultra-Death Boss... luckily, they're hardly the only one who hates that guy.
(And if they were having a better day, they might wonder why Ogre hates that guy so much.)
Trudge, trudge, trudge...
"'In Kasugayama High,' he says..." Phoenix raises their voice, as if Shiryuu could hear them: "Wanna give us a fuckin' room number?! This joint is massive!"
Massive! ssive! sive! ve!, their voice echoes, down the empty halls.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika slept almost like a rock after all that with Kurou and rescuing Tsubasa. Tucked in by the wall and hanging on jealousy to Tsubasa, she also wakes up when the phone starts vibrating. "Nm," Ichika agrees, and lifts her head.
"...You sure?" Ichika asks once.
But just once.
Ichika helped Tsubasa along the way, at least. And now... after tock--
"Beat it," the Ogre advises Nekomata. "Before we beat you."
Fucking Jack Frost. Luckily, Ichika has a Maragi skill card on her. She doesn't bother being friendly with that.
But now...
Ogre looks around. "What are we looking for?" she asks.
Ogre's in better shape than Phoenix, at least; she's just tired.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Gotta be tonight," Tsubasa said. "... an' I gotta know."
"Yeah?" Nekomata asks, her nose wrinkling. "Says who?"
"Says th' Boss," Phoenix says. "You talkin' back to her?"
It's not until they beat them up that Nekomata cries: "Okay, okay! You guys are super tough! Time out a sec! Let's cut a deal, nya--!"
"Talk fast," Phoenix suggests.
The Nekomata shove some cards at the tougher customers. "Here! Skill cards, nya! Take these and not us!!"
"... aight," Phoenix takes them. "Let's jus' be cool."
"We'll remember this~!" The Sukeban Cats promise, as they bound off.
Jack Frost gets no such mercy.
As they fought their way through the building, Phoenix at least finds the brain cells to put together to try and explain. "Like... this fuckin'... musical clockwork locket. Three-pointed star kinda thing, all.. lined with jade an' shit. He said... when it ran outta songs to sing, he'd come for me, then he'd come for you... soon as he'd made sure I couldn't say goodbye. So... least if I know... can't fight what I don't see comin'."
There's a bitter edge to their voice, as they say: "He said takin' it was... acceptin' somethin', ugh... but that it'd be countin' down whether I took it or not. What am I supposed to do, man? Jus'... not know nothin', an' one day I'm fuckin' dead, an' then... I can't even warn ya?"
The locket isn't inside, but --
When they get out to the courtyard --
Ogre, who is only tired and not barely limping along, may well be the first to see the small kami statue, much like the one in the workshop, featured out-of-place beside a bench.
It has two hands, not six, and in them it holds a locket.
When they go to school, tomorrow, it will be gone.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ogre can accept skill cards. The Sukeban Cats may remember, but Ogre isn't in the mood to be nice to demons right now. Especially not Jack Frost.
"...Huh." A weird locket thing. "..."
Accepting something. "Tch," Ogre says. "Asshole. But if he's gonna give you a way to know what's coming, it's better to take it." She puts on a brave face of it, at least--but it is bravado. She doesn't feel that strong, after earlier. Sure, she came through both fights, but...
She could've shot Kurou. Maybe he even would've let her.
"You do what you gotta do," Ogre says instead.
But--
"Phoenix," she says, tilting her head towards the statue. "Look at that," she says. "Think this is it?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Phoenix, at least, put their hand out to stop Ogre from finishing off the Nekomata; for some reason, they're inclined to give mercy to the cat-demons. (They're Tamaki's informants, after all.) They have no reason to be nice to Jack Frost, though.
And the locket...
Phoenix doesn't feel that strong, either.
They stop dead in their tracks, though, when they see the statue -- the save statue, mind you -- holding that locket. "..." They say, mouth open, and the gaunt expression on what's visible of their face says it all.
Swallowing, they nod, and walk forward to take it.
If their hand's trembling a little as they do, don't worry about it.
"... got it. Let's go."
Unfortunately, any attempt to make an orderly exit from Kasugayama is soon interrupted by a group of Ogres -- the demon Ogre, that is -- who LOVE Ogre's cosplay and REALLY want to just take a limb to remember it!!
One way or another, though, they do manage to get back to Tsubasa's apartment block... and they even do it with all their limbs intact.
The next problem, of course, is the stairwell. Phoenix grasps the railing tightly; Ogre will hear their breath sucking in through their teeth, as they force their way up the stairs. They're not complaining, but...
... three flights of stairs, man...
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ogre's willing to go along. ...She doesn't have to take out the Nekomata.
But they get the locket. They prepare to go. And then, they deal with a bunch of other ogres.
...Running is the name of the game here; Ogre doesn't really want to deal with a group when they're both feeling shitty. It is, again, rather unlike running from the cops.
But when they do make it back...
Ogre offers her arm. "Lean on me," she suggests gently. "It's cool."
She's tired, but not as bad-off as Phoenix. She wants to help.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"WE LOVE YOUR HAIIIIIIIIIIIIR!!" The Ogres yells after Ogre, as the two of them scramble off of school grounds.
Demons have... a weird way of showing appreciation.
But Phoenix doesn't usually feel this bad after running from the cops. (Pretty bad, though, yeah. They're always coughing like an old car after a good sprint.) When Ogre comes up alongside them to offer them her arm, Phoenix nods, mutely, finding a spot without spikes to grasp onto. Between her and the railing... they manage to get up.
Luckily, their room is, like, right by the door.
Phoenix's feathers disappear, revealing the light, breezy clothes Tsubasa put on after getting in THE FUCKING SHOWER (a thing they had insisted on before dozing off), as they collapse down onto the side of their bed.
"Fuck," they say, their voice a touch hollow. "That fuckin'... Kurou reckoned his boss thought I could do that, but... no way I coulda done that on me own, man... he ain't ever gave me enough time."
And the word is wound tight as that clockwork star around their neck.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Demons are weird.
Ogre becomes Ichika likewise, and it'll be her turn for a shower soon enough, but not just yet. Instead, Tsubasa collapses, and Ichika starts undressing to her underwear, too sweaty after all that running to stay in her bulky-feeling clothes.
"Assholes," Ichika says again. "...Well, you didn't have to do it alone anyway. I'm with you. I'm not just gonna leave you alone to deal with some shit like this."
She stays standing for the moment, leaning on the bed but not actually setting herself down on it.
"...Sounds like it was real bad..."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"When he took me... he put me in that helmet, but I don't know all of what happened... they drugged me, I reckon." Tsubasa relates, a touch numb, as they lift the pendant from their neck to hold it in a hand. It ticks, softly. "When I woke up, I was in that chair... long time'd passed."
They stare down at it, and their expression is numb, too. "He... threatened me. But when he saw I couldn't breathe, he cut me binder off... thought I could get one over on him, escape when he let me up to take it off, but I guess he was smarter'n that. Tch... by the time they had to let me up, I could barely walk on me own... no window in the bathroom, neither. 'Sides from that, they... kept me there. My body went numb, but sometimes somethin' would twitch, and it's like they'd remember they'd been locked in like that, an' everythin' would just start burnin'... like they'd replaced me muscles with knives. They didn't even let me hold me own food, like... fuck..."
Which explains why the glass of water, back there, had a straw.
"An' th' shit they'd say... while all that was goin' on, it was... like, that ninja boss wanted to know what I thought a man was, an' that fuckin' Kurou? He was so confusin'... like, it was like he was threatenin' me, but also like he was jus'... talkin' weird, I couldn't never... couldn't get a read on him, man. Ended up beggin' him... but whether it was him or his boss, man, neither a them... ever gave me a straight answer. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do, man... like, 'bring back their darkest treasures'? What's that... even mean?!"
Their shoulders quake, as they let out a sob.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"...Mm." Drugged, and that chair. "..."
"...I'm sorry," Ichika says. "That's awful. ...I tried to stop him taking you, but... I wasn't strong enough. Couldn't do it with just me and her." Hibari. Mujina.
Burning... "...Sucks, being stuck like that."
But what they'd say? "..A man?" she wonders. "That guy seemed pretty weird," she says. "Like, everything he said seemed sideways. I couldn't read him, either."
With no straight answers...
Ichika reaches down and rubs Tsubasa's shoulder. "Hey, hey," she says.
"...I dunno. But you don't have to figure it all out alone anymore."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"... he told me 'bout th' shit he threw at us," Tsubasa says, their tone still mute. "'Mugen Setsuna', he called it... this thing that kills a bunch a people by slittin' necks. Didn't know that when I ran at it, but..."
They're quiet, for a moment. They shake their head. "... he weren't gon' kill me," Tsubasa insists, then. "He wants me. Wants... me to be his weapon 'gainst th' Order. Maybe it's 'cause I'm all force, too..." Like the force of those lasers that cut them all down, though Tsubasa, inarguably, isn't yet that powerful. ... is there something Shiryuu sees in them, even so? "But I knew... he'd happily kill both you an' Hibari-chan to get to me," Tsubasa certainly thinks he'd do it happily, anyway. "I saw it... when he knocked you guys down... turned his blade flat. 'Cuz I impressed him, or... whatever."
When Ichika reaches down to rub their shoulder, they lean forward to put the locket down on the side of their bed -- and then they reach up, grasping at her hand, head bowed. "If anything happened to you --" they start, but they don't manage to finish the thought.
"... only way I did anythin' smart in there," they settle on, instead, their voice fragile, "it's 'cuz I was thinkin' 'bout you. Thinkin'... you were comin' for me... I couldn't be wreckin' meself uselessly. Jus' had to get through it... I did fight, but all it did was open me wounds up again. Couldn't get out... I was scared, like, what if you came an' jus' found a body? Couldn't do that to you, man... fuck... that's why I let 'em feed me... even though it was fuckin' humiliatin'."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Huh," Ichika says. Mugen Setsuna...
But, "...A weapon, huh?" She doesn't like it. But, "..Yeah, I noticed. Both that he was willing to go hard, and that when he had the chance he didn't go for it. Especially with Hibari-chan..."
"I know," she says, when they can't finish that thought. "I know."
"...Thanks," Ichika says. "For remembering. For taking care of yourself the best way you could. I came as fast as I could. I wish I could've gone faster."
She bites her lip.
"...I feel the same, you know? If something happened to you..."
"That's not how it went down, though. He wants something from you, but you're still alive. We both are."
"...I gotta get stronger, though. I gotta... get smarter. I can look back, see shit I could've done better against that guy... Dunno if it would make a difference, but maybe it would, too."
She shakes her head. "Anyway..."
"I love you."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa nods, mutely, when Ichika asks. Hibari, too... "... I was worried 'bout her. This is way outta her comfort zone, but she came to help me, anyway... but fuck, man, I knew she would. Put her in a weird spot, huh... but... she's someone's got convictions, y'know? Doin' what's right... ain't surprised she showed up with everyone."
They don't really want ot think about how long it would have taken without Mujina's help.
"... I didn't know how long it'd been," Tsubasa admits. "That Kurou, he told me what day it is, right down to th' year... but it never seemed real. I couldn't really sleep, y'know? Not really... so everythin'... everythin' blurred together. It just -- hurt. But I knew," they say, again, their voice wobbling. "I knew. I knew. You promised."
There's more a wobble to their voice, as they add: "T-then, when those guys were talkin' -- an' I realised I was bait, I -- I-I mean, I'd figured it out, but I couldn't -- he shut that helmet an' I was screamin' me head off but I couldn't do nothin'!"
They tug, lightly, on her arm. "H--hey..."
But that request goes wordless; they have something more important to say. "I love you, too, Ichika. It -- it weren't your fault. I was stupid, I ran right at him, I shoulda used my head, got less mad... that song jus' gets in me head, an'... I'll get stronger, too," they promise, their voice ragged. "I won't let him use you jus' to fuckin' -- get at me!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Yeah," Ichika says. "But she did great. Pushed real hard, too. ...I was really impressed." But it's not a surprise, no. Hibari--Mujina--is just like that, Ichika thinks.
"...Mm. Couldn't trust what he said anyway." Pain... But, "I did. and I meant it. It's still true, OK?"
Wobble. "...Mm. I said it to him, too, though. Sometimes... you just gotta go in. If you're 'bait', then I'm there every time. but it's not like we didn't go prepared for trouble. ...Just that we prepared to fight that 'shihaisha', not that Kurou. He got the drop on us this time."
Hey?
Ichika sets her palm against Tsubasa's shoulder. "...Thanks," she says. "Still feels like it was. But... It's them, not us." She remembers that. "Good, though. We'll do it together."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Everyone did," Tsubasa sighs. "Makoto-chan... she was so worried, she put a hole in the wall. Fuckin'... wished I coulda done that so many times... if they'd jus' let me have me hands, I coulda ripped me mask off, summoned me Persona... guess they weren't gon' give me no inch 'cuz they knew how dangerous it'd be for them, huh."
It's still true... "I-I can't go through that shit again," Tsubasa confesses, tears returning to them. "I can't--! I-I dunno if they was tryin' to break me down or make me stronger or get in my head or, or, or what, but there's nothin' I won't do to never get tied down again--!" They take reedy breaths, shaking their head, trying to get a grip. "F--fuck... fuckin' hysterical... ey..." ... pointing out how it sounds to them doesn't make them feel any less piteous, though.
If it wasn't Ichika, they'd never be able to drop the mask and just fall apart like this.
"But it's not ya fault," they insist, again. "It's not... it's not! Fuck, I jus'... can't stop cryin'... fuck..."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"...Yeah. If they'd let you fight, you could've fucked shit up. That's why they didn't."
But...
"...I couldn't take it either," Ichika admits. "Being trapped like that... it's fucked up." But those breaths, "Hey," she says. "Hey..."
Ichika sits down on the bed next to them, tries to be soothing with strokes of her hand.
"I know," she says. "It's not. It's Ok though. it's normal to be upset after shit like that. ...It's OK, if you gotta cry."
"It's just me here, OK...?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Least they didn't take me lightly... ugh..."
But was Tsubasa really good enough for the treatment they got? They couldn't... do anything against it.
... maybe that just speaks to how powerful their enemies are.
Ichika tries to get through to Tsubasa between those hitching sobs, though, and they do feel when she sits down beside them. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't grab their wig and toss it over in the vague direction of 'somewhere else' so that they could keel over and plant their head in her lap, burying their face against her belly as they cling to her.
"Ichika...!"
They'll be crying for a long time... but then, it couldn't have been safe to cry back there, either.