2026-03-31: A Warning
- Log: A Warning
- Cast: Hyousuke Suzuki, Umie Akabane
- Where: Hirasaka Ward
- OOC Date: 2026-03-31
- IC Date: Thu Oct 18
- Summary: Hyousuke and Umie once more run into each other during the Dark Hour. He takes a far less subtle approach than during their last meeting, and their conversation quickly becomes a pointed warning.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
The ascent up the museum, and the fight aboard the zeppelin, were both still fresh in Hyousuke's mind. He could still feel the fires lapping at his skin, the sword carving into his flesh, his body searing with the explosion that ripped into his torso, and the meteoric descent into the fathomless depths of the ocean as the zeppelin became a mass of fire and metal hurtling into the blue below. His muscles still ached from the swim ashore, and his ears still rung from the screaming of the children he'd carried with him to safety. He'd only just begun to recover, and any of the things he'd gone through would have been cause enough to take the night off and relax.
But peace, such as it was for men like him, felt wrong. Some remnants of frantic strength still lingered in his muscles, and sparks of manic energy pricked at his mind like needles, demanding that he get up and do something. So it was that, when night descended upon Sumaru, and the supernatural influence of the Dark Hour devoured the world, Hyousuke did not choose to rest or shelter. He ventured out, a shotgun strapped to his back and his fists clenched in preparation for a fight, determined to work off his energy *somehow.*
He found himself at a park before long. It was a simple and modest thing, little more than some green stretches divided by meandering footpaths, the occasional tree providing shade against whatever sunlight still made it through the October gloom. He stopped at its edge, peering around, occasionally stopping to focus on one specific spot. A rustling bush, a shifting tree, even something as minute as a shadow twitching under the moon's pale and yellowed light - he beheld and focussed on them all. He was the very image of a hound told to guard or seek, waiting with tensed muscles for some unseen threat.
Whether that meant he was unaware of anything creeping up on him, or so vigilant that to do so would be an onerous task, wasn't clear.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Hyousuke isn't the only one with nervous energy to spare.
"Yellow-blue... yellow-blue!!" A chipmunk-like demon, standing at about waist-high, gibbers incoherently at the sight of something clasped in the young woman's palm, sparkling in the green light.
"... Well, that's... different," murmurs Umie, eyes narrowing behind the half-mask: a simple matte red this time, with Umie having little energy to think of some creative design.
"Yellow-blue, yellow-blue!!" cries the Ratatoskr as they scamper off haphazardly into the unnatural night, leaving the hooded woman behind.
"I can't hear or feel her, either..." Umie glances at the fragment, closing her fingers around it and pressing it inside a hidden pocket in her pink windbreaker. "It feels uncomfortable to hold it, though... and... do I really..."
She looks up sharply, sensing a resonance of another Persona User nearby. "...." Looking towards the presence's direction and focusing, she frowns.
Pondering for a moment whether or not she'd like to call out to Hyousuke, she opts not to.
She really doesn't want to deal with difficult questions, right now, and it's likely he may not even realize she's here, in the first place.
Still, she doesn't make any effort to really disguise or slip away; wouldn't that make her seem even more suspicious?
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
A slight ache in the body. A tension in the muscles. The feeling of exertion - of pushing towards one's limits, but not quite against them. That was the mark of Hyousuke's resonance. He'd not even attempted to hide it, either not thinking to, or simply not caring enough to try. Either way, it did not seem to distract him from his task, and he kept his eyes firmly forward, barely blinking beneath the mirrored gold of his visor. For the longest while, Hyousuke remained silent, a statue carved from purples and golds, striking a rich contrast against the muted pallor of the Dark Hour.
Eventually, he lifted his head to the air, like a hound catching a scent on a breeze. He turned only a little, but when he spoke, it was clear that there was only one person he could have addressed.
"If you're gonna attack me again, could you at least do it to my face this time?" Hyousuke said. Loud enough to be heard, quiet enough not to call attention to himself, his tone was placid with a joking lilt to it. Anyone that knew him well would have clocked it as fake, however, and the smile he held beneath the mask was hollow to match.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Paranoid people like Umie Akabane, meanwhile, have had time to fill into the role given them. A constant need to avoid being perceived by forces outside their control, and nearly a decade of settling into more passive ways of doing so, leads to a case like Umie's: a person, hiding in plain sight, to a compulsive degree.
Until she isn't, and then, she's there, a consequence of a control that is always set to 'on' instead of when it's actually needed, leading it to slip when she's emotionally distracted, surprised, or even just tired. .... or, well, just all of the above.
At least she doesn't bother to hide once Hyousuke calls her out. "I didn't--" Oh. Wait, she did. Right. Umie's lips grimace. ".... Look, it was..." She sighs, slipping her hands into her pockets. "I'm sorry. I wasn't in my right mind at the time."
It didn't matter how much weight he placed into seeming casual, it felt wrong not to at least apologize for it, even if it calls attention to the many weird aspects of herself always left unexplained, for most.
"So I take it you got a lot of pent-up energy as well, eh?"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
The few seconds that he kept the mask tilted towards her were some of the longest he had felt. There was no expression there, and he spoke nothing - his face was a sheer and silent wall, betraying nothing as it stared unblinking into her eyes. The silence alone might have been telling, however, for long long he let it stretch on for. In time, he turned his gaze back towards the park, and resumed his vigil over it. For what or whom? Only he could say, and he seemed disinclined to share.
"...None of us were." Hyousuke eventually said. He remembered the weight of the weapon in his hands. He remembered how he'd gripped it so tight that the skin on his knuckles had threatened to split. He remembered how easy it seemed like it would be to sweep the thing upwards, and twitch his finger down, and claim the prize that the Black Mask had stolen from under their noses. It was bad enough to have done it, he supposed, but to have come so close in front of all else gathered upon the zeppelin... It was a thought he didn't care to give much energy to, even if it allowed a sad hint of empathy.
That empathy did not mean the deed had been forgotten, though.
"I always do." He said simply to her attempt at moving past that point in the conversation. It wasn't a joking remark like the last thing he'd said. While not deathly serious, it carried a chill to it like a biting October breeze, rather than the warmth of an genuine jest, or the calm of bitter commiseration. "Especially these days. I've got a lot to think about. A lot of shit to work through. But I think you might be able to help with some of that..." Finally, he turned to face her fully, and the muscles around the mask shifted into what could only have been a stony, serious, look. "...If you don't mind answering a question for me."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
As much as Umie hated being Perceived, a contradiction lies in how Umie reacts in situations, such as this.
As Hyousuke stares Umie down, Umie, despite Hyousuke's overall appearance, matches his gaze with a casual respect, determined to maintain her position to the challenge hidden within, but not going beyond that to prove her mettle beyond that.
In other words: Umie's not going to try to taunt Hyousuke on if she can help it, and with no Sudou present, the possibilities of something going pear-shaped in this moonlit encounter has narrowed to few.
Besides...
"How are you holding up?" she asks, with a gentler tone. She can't help herself but ask, despite everything.
No one should have to deal with the possibilities of Dark Mask coming and doing the same to them, or the Mark.
'. But I think you might be able to help with some of that.'
Ah.
.... shit, she sure walked into that one.
Umie sighs, tilting her hooded head towards Hyousuke with a sardonic grin. "As long as I get to sit someplace, sure. Fire away. This night's not going to get any better."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"...Fine. We'll go over there - I need to keep an eye on this place anyway." Hyousuke said, while looking towards a nearby bench. It was an unremarkable thing, even with its appearance warped by the grasp of the twenty-fifth hour, but perhaps unremarkable was what both of them needed right now. Unremarkable and boring were comforting, in their own ways. He moved slowly, feet tapping a steady rhythm against the slabs laid out across the ground, not once turning to face Umie after he'd finished speaking. Whether out of a lack of desire to perceive her, or simple focus on what lay ahead, he was disinclined to say.
Even when he sat, Hyousuke seemed tense. He didn't lean back into the bench, instead remaining alert, his gaze pointed towards the park proper, like he was searching for something amidst the murk beyond. He certainly didn't look to face Umie - not directly, at least - when he sat there, muscles still coiled a little, as if waiting for something to launch himself at. Even so, he continued speaking to her, even if he didn't think to look her in the eyes while he said his piece.
"I'm not as good at the subtle stuff as Uchida-san or the Thieves, so I'll just come out with it. What's your deal with the Ryouharas?"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Sounds good." Umie's not planning on ditching Hyousuke, at least, even if her brain is already calculating the many routes she could take, just from her casual glance back to the bench and back at Hyousuke.
Where someone like Hyousuke is proficient at standing his ground and charging forward unimpended, Umie's skills skew the opposite direction, working up her approach until the pieces are set, and the dominos begin to fall towards a satisfying end.
And when that doesn't happen? She gets the hell away, which is more relevant here. A leap onto the back of the bench and onto the nearby fence, a dart through a nearby tree's branches, and then... ah, that's just one.
But Hyousuke is not her opponent, and Umie refuses to run away, just yet, from answers he needs to know.
She knows it's coming; he was the one who told Phoenix what he saw.
Umie lets out a long sigh as she slumps onto the opposite end of the bench. "I don't know, some of the Thieves can be real to the point, eh?"
She crosses her legs, and leans back; signalling her intent to stay put, at least.
"A very complicated one. You'll run into that eventually, Suzuki-kun; as much as we all like to categorize the world in one truth and black and white... we find ourselves dealing with people that can be more than one thing at one time."
Dark eyelashes lower; she's not looking at Hyousuke's mask, but out towards the park. "A person can accept you, even tell you that they are willing to be your enemy, if it means you surviving... and be the person who tortured another, for reasons they refuse to disclose, even when the person they told to hold true to their convictions is yelling at them."
"It'd be easier to say that one part is a lie, and the other is truth. I believe both are true."
.....
"Which leaves me in a unique situation to change things. I intend to, especially as the person that may have inspired certain changes in the first place."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke was a hound. He was a dogged and savage thing, willing to - as Umie had surmised - charge forward until he reached what he sought. His reaction to her answer only served as proof of that.
"He hurt my friend."
The words were spoken plainly. Flatly, even. Yet, in the stillness of the night, with only the yawning black to disturb them, the words rang out like a thundercrack, cutting right to the heart of an issue that he was either unaware of the finer points of, or simply did not care to recognise.
"Your relationship with them might be complicated, but mine isn't. They hurt Phoenix. They hurt my *friend.*" A slight growl crept into his words. A rumbling of the throat, like a thunderhead in the distance - a warning of a storm that was yet to reach them, but loomed ever closer. "I don't care what bullshit they're giving you. Anyone can *say* they're going to change. Anyone can *say* what they're doing is for your own good." There was conviction to his voice, and anger too. Not directed at her, but still burning openly, as though his words were a fire lashing out in whatever direction the wind blew its searing touch.
"They hurt. My. Friend." That delicate argument, so carefully crafted and artfully delivered, had been barrelled through like a sledgehammer through glass. He let a silence hang in the air, so thick with tension that it might as well have been fog. When he spoke, it was with more measured and restrained tone, erring more towards frustration than fury. "Phoenix and Uchida-san think you're fine, and they're smarter than me, for damn sure. So I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt on this. I'll trust their judgement and say that you getting mixed up with the Ryouharas doesn't mean you're in on whatever they're trying to do. But I don't trust them, and as long as you keep working with them? I'm sure as hell not gonna trust you either."
Hyousuke's voice was low and even, not wavering once. He'd not delivered a threat to her, nor had he given her some ultimatum - he didn't think his trust meant anything to her, given how little they'd spoken. He was not so egotistical as to hold his companionship up on a pedestal like a prize worth winning. What he'd said, if his tone was any indication, was a warning about who to trust.
And who'd trust her.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
And what would Hyousuke think, if he knew he sat opposite someone who murdered someone else?
"Sudou hurt many people too. Black Mask likely has killed just as many, if not more, given how effortlessly he pulled off this one--"
Wait. Umie frowns, feeling the fabric where her shard rests, inside her jacket. So that's how he managed to...
She'll tuck this for later.
"Yet, we gave Sudou a peaceful death, because he was as much a victim, if even moreso."
Even Black Mask...
'I don't care what bullshit they're giving you.'
Umie's gaze turns neutral.
"...."
Another person, another role, placed on her. The helpless one. The damsel. The victim. The one with no agency. The villainess. The temptress. The one helping the Ryouharas accomplish their goals, as much as fault as everyone.
The sweet little wife, the trophy.
She can either be the one who is blameless, or the one to be blamed.
It's always like that, isn't it?
"I didn't say they told me they'd change. I said I'd change things myself." She gets up. "You're welcome to put your own narrative on me, but it won't fix anything."
Umie looks at Hyousuke with a brief look of confusion when he says _Phoenix_ trusts her.
Still, that anger curls in her stomach.
"Your trust is not required. I'll do what I need to do."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"I know men like them." Hyousuke said, his voice that same warning growl he'd used before. A low tone, its rumbling like the tremors before a quake, not that of hesitation or born from a lack of conviction. "They're gonna feed you all the things you want to hear, and when you're not useful to them any more, you're gonna wind up with a knife in your back and fuck all to show for it. I. Know." Something painful flared inside him. Some knife driving through his heart, or carving into the depths of his mind. The memory was agony, and speaking it evoked a feeling of barbs tearing at his throat. But like bile spewing forth, it came anyway.
Hyousuke rose from the bench, moving slowly, but never turning his back to her. He looked down at her with that expressionless mass of plastic strapped against his face, shielding her from the cold of his piercing gaze, or the slight snarl that his lips had begun to curl into.
"I don't need you to trust me. Hell, I don't even give a shit if you *like* me. But if those two keep going the way they are, they're gonna drag you down with them, and it's gonna take a goddamn miracle to drag you out of that hole." Again, the words stung in his throat, and poisoned the air with an acid that threatened to burn the skin off his lips. "I'm just trying to warn you before someone else gets hurt."
He moved back slowly, his eyes fixed on her, his back never turned until he was at arm's length from her.
"I'll see you around."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'I know men like them.'
To say 'Shiryuu isn't like that' feels like playing into the narrative laid out before her.
The context, and whether or not Shiryuu truly is or will turn out to be that person... all kept inside her, as is the things that drew them together, and the things they've lost already.
The other part, of course, is that she's unsure just how much Hyousuke knows about what Phoenix was tasked to do; while she's sure the Phantom Thieves know, such secrets are best laid with Phoenix to tell them.
.....
No, she's the one that brought ruin, in the same way a fruit brought knowledge to Adam and Eve.
They were both offered a taste of way things could be, and what they sorely lacked.
If she fell because of it, well...
Hyousuke will have plenty of company, wagging their fingers at her, most likely.
She offers no rebuttal, or denial.
'I'm just trying to warn you before someone else gets hurt.'
"Continue being there for them. I'll do what I need to, on my end."
WIth a wave, Umie walks off; unhurried, until she disappears into the shadows proper.