2026-04-06: A Phoenix Alights at the Cherry Blossoms
- Log: A Phoenix Alights at the Cherry Blossoms
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Maria Sakurai
- Where: Iwatodai - Abandoned Ice-Skating Rink
- OOC Date: 2026-04-06
- IC Date: Sun Oct 21 2012
- Summary: Maria sneaks into an abandoned building! Of course, Tsubasa is there, too, always ready to give her some handy advice on CRIME. While they're talking about her Kingdom, Maria ends up revealing her secret identity to Tsubasa -- and Tsubasa, not wanting Maria to face the Supernatural world alone, finds themself revealing theirs to her in turn.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
Once upon a time, which is to say, about a decade ago, there was an ice-skating rink out in Iwatodai that was quite popular with the younger set, especially in the summer due to its cool indoor temperatures. It even had a little soft-serve store inside that was a popular hangout!
And then, so the legend goes, after a few years of good business, the skating rink closed down and the doors were shuttered, as they have been ever since. Why this was so has varied depending on the teller and the precise tale told: it was a front to launder money for the yakuza. A curse. Ghosts. A ghost-curse. A razor-thin profit margin was overtaken with the economic downturn.
No one's been in there since. And the building remains, slowly rotting away in this far corner of Iwatodai, its land a small sliver of unused territory. The most popular rumor, of course, is that the site is haunted, which has made it a object of some intrigue by ghost-hunters and urban spelunkers. Of course, the stories also say that anyone who's gone in hasn't come back out, or if they did, they came back with their hair shocked white by sheer terror. Why? Well...
Probably because of ghosts, if you listen to the stories. With their ghost-curse.
It probably would be more reasonable to be concerned about the tetanus risk. Or inhaling mold. This place does not look at all healthy.
Which is exactly why Maria is halfway up the chainlink fence outside it. There is, fortunately, no barbed wire outside.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Midterms are OVER, man. Thank FUCKING god. Tsubasa will never tell a single soul that they actually busted their ass doing that shit, especially with THE GODDAMN ARSONIST and THEIR LITERAL NEMESIS downing a ZEPPELIN in the middle.
And now, what are they up to? Lurking around an abandoned skating rink? Listen, Shuyo called them chicken, they're not gonna stand for that. Up the fence, and --
"Yo," Tsubasa calls, slinking out from inside the grounds. They're dressed in a tank top with a magpie holding a ring emblazoned on it, with a neon pink and black binder beneath it; their cargo pants are long enough to cope with hopping a fence, and so is the jacket over their shoulders. They've got nice, deep pockets to hide their lockpicking kit. And phone, obviously. They need proof. "Sakurai-san, c'mere. Check this shit out."
Tsubasa, you're not going to be a bad influence on this girl, are you --
You're totally gonna be a bad influence on this girl, aren't you.
Yes, by kneeling by the door to the skating rink and pulling out that lockpicking kit, Tsubasa tries to break into a door which has surely been broken into before. "When shit's got mauled like this, you gotta be real patient," they instruct her, as they demonstrate how to work with the beleagured lock. Twist, twist, annnd... click!
"You wanted in, right?" They ask, as they straighten up. "C'mon, let's hustle 'fore someone sees us."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
How did Maria's midterms go? Well, they uhhhh went. Her math scores will once again save the proverbial day, because everyone knows she never pays attention in history, and other classes are various degrees of 'a wash'. Just what does she plan to do for college?
Sports, probably.
Someone calls out to her, and she swings back away from the fence before letting go to drop easily to the ground. True, it was only about a two-foot drop, but...
"Seki-kun! And it's Maria-chan, remember?"
She looks no worse the wear for her jaunt in a supernatural space some time prior. Dressed for the fall (slacks, teal-blue sweater, slip-on walking shoes) she stoops a moment to reclaim her handbag before trotting on over to see what Tsubasa's doing.
"Ahaaaa," she breathes out, leaning into their personal space to get a better look. "Neat! It just goes, click! And it opens! I tried it, you know, but it didn't budge. So I thought, I'd just pick the lock, right?"
And she follows them on in to the grounds proper.
"I saw a cute white thing running around here," she tells Tsubasa. "So, I wanted to get a closer look! It had a little blue hat, like this."
With her hands, she makes horns near her head.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Ah, right, right... Maria-chan, c'mon," Tsubasa gestures her over, even though they're a touch too respectful for a punk. "Uh," they add, a touch lamely, "you can call me Tsubasa-kun if ya want, by th' way." See! Not too formal!!
"Place like this, it's been abandoned forever... we ain't th' first ones sneakin' in," they explain, as they head on in. "Enough people force a lock, an' th' lock gets sick of it, y'know?" There's this weird musty smell that any place gets when something which was frozen for a long time unfreezes; it's been trapped in here for aeons. No lighting, obviously, but that's why it's sometimes good to break into a joint in the middle of the day -- the windows are their lights.
Also, like, Tsubasa has a pen light they can flash around. And back around to Maria, when she mimes those little horns. "Oh, yeah! That Jack Frost fucko, yeah?" They ask, before they pause, and add: "Uhhh. Y'know. Th'... mascot dude. Stuffed animal guy. Yeah."
Perfect save, Tsubasa. Maria will never guess that Jack Frost is really a demon. Wait, does that mean they're gonna run into demons here...? Well, at least they can keep an eye on her...
"Sounds like you been gettin' on pre' good since all that shit, tho'," they add, as they explore around inside the rink. "Wondered 'bout it... but you bounce back good, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Okay!" Maria tells them. "Tsubasa-kun it is!"
There, that wasn't too hard.
"Got it," she continues, nodding along as they explain what happened to the lock. "So it's kinda broken? But still working," she explains, as if that's all there is to it. "It would have been cool to climb the fence, too, though."
Probably less cool if she had slipped going over the top and fallen down the other side.
"Yeah! Like that guy. Except, running around?" Maria says, resting a hand against her cheek as if in thought. "I thought, maybe it was a kid, but I don't think so. I bet it's one of those demons," she says, quite casually, because she might be as smart as a rock but she lives in Sumaru City and she's a Persona-user and do you know what?
When it's the first time you meet a demon, they explain themselves and how you can talk to them. It's just how it works*.
(*it is not and this is a metatextual joke)
Maria nods, enthusiastic. "Yeah! I'm doing great now," she explains, spreading out her arms. "I even got to see Phoenix again! It wasn't that scary after everyone came and saved me, and then you know what?"
She pauses, then glances over at Tsubasa. "You have to guess," she tells them, clasping her hands behind her back like she's got a secret.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa would have been very upset if Maria had fallen and broken something. That would have been really awkward to explain to the ambulance... "I, uh, ain't too good with fences," they explain, instead. "Not all that flexible." That's one way to describe having scar tissue dominating half your body. "... woulda been cool, tho'."
They should probably encourage her not to break a bone, but, like, are they really gonna stand here and lie to her?!
But Maria just straight-up calls Jack Frost a demon, and Tsubasa blinks, for a moment, before they realise: "Oh, yeah, one a them weird rumours, right?" Right. It's totally normal for normal people to run into demons in alleyways.
Frankly, the first demon Tsubasa met decided she wanted to skin them so that she could clean their skin and make them all nice and tidy. Luckily, Tsubasa doesn't remember this whatsoever... which means they have no idea why they're so creeped out by Silky in the present day.
It's probably fine.
Maria calls out Phoenix, though, and Tsubasa flashes her a rare grin. "Oh, yeah, they was tellin' me 'bout that. Real glad you escaped that shit alright, man. Oi, did ya see that Cherry girl? She was sick as hell."
But then -- guess what! "Uhhh..." Tsubasa pauses, turning to her, tapping a finger to the side of their cheek. (Their nails are painted blue and green! Nail polish can be a guy thing, too. It's guy nail polish because it is on a guy.) "Did you... find somethin' cool when you were escapin'? There was some rad-ass shit up that tower, like... I stole some sweet-ass jewels. Was gonna get a tonne a cash, but, uh... I had to like, buy safety from a fuckin' gouger, so... eh, it's fine, like, kept some guys safe, whatever."
It's not whatever, Tsubasa super wanted all that cash money!
Stupid being a good person and junk.
"So I'm gonna guess -- okay -- ya found a whole-ass fuckin' diamond. There. Final guess." They nod, as they fold their arms, firmly.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
Maria would have been very upset if she'd fallen and broken something. Again, even! But Tsubasa explains why that wouldn't have been a good idea for them. "Oh, yeah. Guess not, huh," Maria considers, tapping a couple fingers against her lips. "But it totally would have been cool!"
No one should ever tell Maria about base jumping. Or rock-climbing, for that matter.
"A rumor?" Maria considers this a moment. "Hmm, maybe! Like, the mascot for the soda totally gets up and walks around sometimes?" she says, making her own attempt at rumor-monging. Fortunately for everyone, she's got no talent for that-- that is, when she's making the attempt honestly. Accidental rumor-monging, meanwhile, is a whole other kettle of fish.
Maria's just lucky she only really met a demon when she was already a Persona-user. They might try to kill you anyway if you have a Persona, but at least some of them will try to make nice in case the reverse is true, first, and thus Maria (all jokes aside) really did get a sort of rundown about this whole business before she had a run-in with a much nastier shade of demon.
"Oh, they did?" Maria looks pleased as punch about that. "Cherry? And, she was really cool? Hehe," Maria giggles, as if she's got a secret she's just waiting to tell--
"Eh?" She pauses. "Something cool??" She pauses again. "There was stuff like that in there???" She pauses again, then slouches. "Aw... I want a diamond..."
Which is all to say--
Maria shakes her head. "No, it wasn't a diamond! That would have been really cool, though. No, you were saying how this Cherry girl was cool? Really cool? Super cool?"
She pauses, yet again.
"Well, she's me!" Maria announces, revealing her identity without an apparent care in the world. "I'm Cherry! ...You know Phoenix, so I can trust you. But I just had to tell someone!"
This secret has been eating her alive for weeks, apparently...
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Super cool," Tsubasa agrees, and elects not to tell Maria about that time they couldn't quite clear a fence and so a piece of metal on it caught on their pants and fucking shredded it and everyone saw their boxers with little apples on them INCLUDING THE COP CHASING THEM...
Sometimes being a delinquent comes with risks, man. You GOTTA make the jump or your rep will be RUINED.
Tsubasa's accidentally spread a Rumour or two of their own, in their day. Like that one about how Tatsuya Suou was the Joker Killer... long story. "Yeah, man," they agree, despite Maria's poor roll. "Jus' like that."
One day, the Persona-User Phoenix will meet the demon Phoenix, and on that day, Tsubasa will make a new friend. But that day... has not yet come. Phoenix the demon is like, level fifty-four, give them some time to catch up.
(Fun fact: Phoenix the demon is also Temperance-aligned, proving once and for all that demons and devils are different things. Sadly, Ogre the demon is Chariot-aligned, not Devil-aligned, even though that would have been really funny.)
"Yeah, man, sick as hell! She had this, like, cool-ass polearm? And her Persona had this short sword and was attackin' with dark petals an' shit, like you got this shoujo comic hero stuck in a shounen comic kickin' everyone's asses. You woulda loved it." Tsubasa doesn't know the half of it!!
Well, they intuit half of it, at least, when Maria expresses that she wants a diamond. "Not a diamond, huh," they realise, tilting their head as they examine her. "Sooo..."
So, here's Maria, who, as Tsubasa said, was just super cool --
And she's --
"Holy shit," Tsubasa gapes, their eyes widening so much that it's even kind of obvious how one side is a little squinty from all those scars. "You're -- but she's -- so that's you? Okay. Holy shit. Uh. One sec."
Tsubasa goes to sit down on one of those benches which, once upon a time, would have let people lace up their ice skaking boots.
"Damn."
Yeah, give them a minute.
... they do sort that out, though, given that minute. "Hey, man, congrats!" Tsubasa says, grinning to her. "Jus' -- jus' one thing, yeah? There's this power you got -- I reckon you also got it -- an' it hides ya identity from anyone who might be lookin' to find you out. But the more people ya tell, the weaker that protection gets. So, uh... okay, holy shit..." They rub at the back of their neck, taking a breath. "Okay. I'm gon' do it. Gotta look out for ya. Okay. So you know how you're Cherry, yeah? So, uh, secret thing is, like -- I ain't got no friend called Phoenix. I'm me friend called Phoenix. I mean -- uh -- I'm Phoenix," they stumble over the admission, but they get there, in the end. "Reckon I might be on thin ice tellin' people meself, but if you out there, like... I wanna make sure you know you got someone. Uh. Can't tell you 'bout the guys I run with," they add, gesturing with a hand. "No way, no how... but I'll tell ya 'bout me."
They smile to her, again, a touch self-effacing. "Like... it's weird, right? Gettin' these powers, an' no one shows up to tell ya what's goin' on, how they work, any a that..."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
The most important question, though, is did Tsubasa get caught? Or did they go down in legend (and rumor) as the apple-shorts'd delinquent?
Maria, though, continues to look like the cat who caught the canary the more Tsubasa (unknowingly) continues to butter her up. "Oh yeah?" she says, because while she might look and act like she was born yesterday some of the time, the reality is that she...
...is not without her own sense of canniness.
"Hehe," Maria giggles again. "See? Isn't that a good secret?" She twirls about just the once. "Sure, it was me! I woke up to that power then and all. It was a little scary, but a little exciting, too! And, a little bit... fun?" She pauses. "Or is that the same as being exciting? Anyway, that girl who looked like me, that wasn't really me. But also was me?" She shakes her head. "It was confusing, but, also, I get it. There's a part of me that's like that, and, I want to remember her, you know?"
But Tsubasa says they need a moment.
"Oh, okay!"
Accordingly, they sit down.
"Yep!" Maria chimes in, once Tsubasa's gotten their own head around it. "I think I have the gist of it. I kind of got the basics there and there, you know? And, when I thought about it later, I realized, no one knew that was me. So, it's like the perfect disguise, right? Actually," she goes on, clasping her hands behind her back, "I wasn't even sure if you'd believe me if I told you, but I figured, if you knew Phoenix, there had to be some trick to it, and,"
Wait, wait, back up. Tsubasa's Phoenix?
"...So they're not your friend?" Maria says, tilting her head like a confused dog. "Wow! I guess I kinda see it now, too? But... wow, okay. So you have to tell someone!" She untangles her hands and claps them together in front of herself. "Neat!"
She's taking this in stride, all told.
"Well, kind of? I found this blue room with all these friendly people in there. They told me a little bit about it. So, I think I get it. It's a power that I have that I can help other people with! And, do really cool stuff. Like a magical girl <3!" Somehow, Maria enunciates the heartmark. "There's some stuff about this that's a little scary, too. Some of the demons don't always want to be friendly. So you have to kick their asses hard!" She makes a little fist with her right hand. "And, they said that it's better not to jump into supernatural spaces alone if I can help it? There's power in connections and all that. So... I've been careful!"
This is careful in Maria terms, it should be noted.
"But, I'm glad. I was starting to wonder if anyone else had a power 'just like' mine, but it looks like you've got it too! I'm really happy!"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
They're a legend, obviously. Duh.
(There are better things to be legendary for...)
"Yeah, a part a ya... it's weird, but like, cool weird," Tsubasa affirms. "It is real fun..."
Down they sit, though, and they do know the trick, and the reason for that, in fact --
"Yeah," Tsubasa, who is in fact Phoenix, nods. "It's like that." They listen, as she talks about a blue room, hands resting at their knees.
"Th' Velvet Room," they confirm, with another nod. "It's like... this supernatural time-out zone? You can kinda just get a breather in there. You can trust those explanations," they add, and someone definitely had to tell them that Igor was trustworthy, so they're really just paying it forward.
"But you are a bit like a magical girl," they add, with a ghost of a grin, blink and you'll miss it. "I see it." They drum their fingers, against their knee, thoughtfully. "Yeah... supernatural shit can be dangerous. An' not jus' 'cuz a demons," they add, their expression growing grave. "There's humans with Personas what'll fuck ya, too. There's these people called th' Ryouhara clan, they're real-ass ninjas an' shit... they kidnapped me an' tried to get me in on their shit in th' worst way. I reckon they work for this big evil government conspiracy operatin' in Sumaru. An' then there's Strega, this group a Persona-Users who'll kill for hire... if you ever meet a girl called Niko-chan, jus' run th' other way, man."
Tsubasa shakes their head, looking up to Maria again. "But there are folks like us," they add, finally. "Jus' be careful if you learn 'bout any of 'em... our masks are, like, the biggest edge we got, fightin' people more powerful'n we are." And that warning might communicate what kind of trust they've extended to Maria -- and what she's extended to them, in turn.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Uh huh," Maria agrees, on the topic of the Velvet Room. "They were really nice in there. Apparently, I can get cards to help my Persona out? Or, at least, help her do things she can't do right now. She's pretty good, you know, but there's a lot of stuff she can't do." Like, say, heal. That could be a pretty handy thing for her Persona to do, if she decided to branch out. Or maybe she could spread out the things that her Persona could do in another way, like giving it the power to do, uh...
Ice, maybe. Don't those horned white demon guys use ice? That could be cool.
Maria, in her own thoughts, doesn't realize the pun.
"Yeah. Some demons can be really mean," Maria says, and surely, she must have first-hand experience with the sort of face she pulls. "And then, there's those Shadows in the Dark Hour. They're not like my Shadow at all. They don't want to talk." Or play, or really do anything properly sociable, period. Even monsters like those might be the least of her worries, though--
Other people with Personas are far more of a problem, as Tsubasa puts it.
"Wow, real ninjas? Like on TV!" Maria says, apparently taking the wrong point from Tsubasa's information here. "Do they wear ninja suits, too?" Already, she's picturing something out of daytime TV show, where ninja-suited warriors battle against actors in rubber monster suits (the production value is really high, actually!).
Her eyes widen and she scoots forward a smidge as she realizes something else about what Tsubasa's just said. "Wait, there's really a government conspiracy? Huh," Maria says, all shock vacating her as quickly as it had come in. "Ok. I'll keep that in mind."
But it's Strega's mention that turns Maria towards a more pensive more worried sort of mood. "Killers for hire... kind of like 'him'."
She pauses, looking away from Tsubasa. "I heard a rumor that he died." Another rumor, about who the real responsible parties for the serial murders, hasn't yet broken the airwaves. For now, this is a good thing for Maria.
For now.
"Yeah. ...Yeah, a superhero's secret identity is their strength!" Maria affirms, making a fist as she looks back at Tsubasa, her game face now well and truly on. "Don't worry. I could trust you, since you were Phoenix's... well, since you are Phoenix!" she cheers, nodding. "But, I'm not going to go and tell anyone. Besides, most people wouldn't believe me, and it's not like I can just," she looks around herself, then over at the abandoned building, "just, change whenever, right? If I got caught by the bad guys somewhere I can't change, then... that's bad," she finishes, looking downright serious about it.
It's easier for them to catch her somewhere on purpose if they know who she is. And that's not even getting into it with her family. If someone hurt her grandmother, or her mother, she'd-- never forgive them!
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Yeah, man, Skill Cards," Tsubasa nods, as they dig into their pocket and pull one out. It's decorated with all the details of Tarukaja! "Have a look at this one... it boosts your Persona's attack power. I been collectin' ones like that for a bit, ones what make ya Persona stronger or tougher... me favourite one to use is 'Rebellion', that one makes ya hits meaner." That's one way to describe crits!
"Yeah, those Shadows are dicks," Tsubasa affirms. "An' Demons are a piece a work. Like I had one sayin' she wanted to claw my eyes out an' chase 'em around like cat toys... uh, Nekomata's cool, tho," they add, waving a hand. "Y'know. For a Demon." They might not have a Pact with her like Tamaki does, but they sure don't want to piss her off. "Silkies make me nervous, too... dunno why. Reckon it's 'cuz they jus' act like this mild-mannered maids an' shit... like... what're they hidin'?!"
Tsubasa will never know...
"Yeah, man," they nod, when Maria believes them, immediately, about the ninjas. "But they don't dress like Phoenix does... they got like, sick kicks an' shit." Don't let Shiryuu hear them call his sneakers fashionable. "Be careful, aight? They're dangerous."
But Maria cottons on to the conspiracy, and Tsubasa nods. "Yeah," they say. "That guy who showed up when you called -- his name was really Tatsuya Sudou -- he was wrapped up with that conspiracy, too, but I guess he was also kinda strugglin' against it, since they showed up to kill him. It's kinda... like, better if ya don't know too much 'bout it, but I'll catch ya up if you wanna get into it? Uh, but th' guy who ended up killin' him, he's th' Man in the Black Mask... he's the real deal, man. You run into a guy like us in a black mask, you take care a yaself, aight? It's like... like, uh, when the main magical girl runs off to fight th' big evil witch at the ends a th' earth, an' watches all her friends get killed on th' way in. It's about that bad." Yeah, Tsubasa's seen some magical girl anime, you wanna fight about it???
They smile, though, hearing Maria's scope on superheroes. "Yeah. An' yeah, ya gotta be like -- in what they callin' a 'Supernatural Space'. Like... y'know how some a th' alleyways in Sumaru are places where people disappear sometimes, an' you'll get, like, a big lizard runnin' a hotel? Like that's one a 'em, spots where there's big Rumours. But in the train stations, too, like -- Igor-san showed ya th' Meta-Nav, right?" They check, briefly. "Like that, an' like th' Dark Hour what goes on near midnight, an'... apparently you can get to a spot like that in net cafes, too? If you ask Igor-san, he can set you up with a password an' shit to th' webring, reckon it was called, like... th' Fabric of Reality?" Tsubasa wasn't ultimately able to help free Kazusa, but they did become aware of a few things in the Thieves' efforts to help.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Oh! That's what they look like," says Maria, her eyes lighting up. "Wow! They really are cards!" ...Demon Artist did explain that, Maria, how did you miss that at all. She lifts her gaze from it to look up at Tsubasa. "Neat! So, you kinda... hit harder with that skill? Sounds pretty handy!" She pauses, reaching into her purse after that moment's thought. "Actually," she says, then produces a card of her own. It says 'Patra'. "Is this one, too? I got it at work at the Giga Macho!"
maria plz
"Right?" she says, moving merrily right along. "They're rude. They don't even say hi before they hit me! But they're not too tough, and they're not everywhere." Is she talking about them showing up in the Metaverse, or in the Dark Hour? As for Demons, she nods, effusive. "I have a pact with a slime," she offers. "That was after I learned about them. It was kind of cute, but kind of gross? It was pretty friendly, though, so we decided to be friends!" For now, anyway. "So are Nekomata like, kitties?" Pause. "What's a Silky?"
Apparently ninjas have nice shoes. "Huuuh," Maria opines, curious about this fact of the moment. "Neat." Fortunately for Tsubasa, she nods. "Okay! I'll run away from any ninjas. I'm good at running."
Maria might not be the brightest bulb, but she has picked up on that remark. "Tatsuya Sudou... huh, so a name like sempai." She screws up her face in a frown. "Sudou... why's that name familiar? Was it... Ah, I know!" Her face lights up, realization dawning. "That puzzle in the newspaper!"
Maria, that's sudoku.
"I like kakuro better," she natters on. "Nanpure is okay? Oh, but, you were saying..."
About the Man the Black Mask. Who killed Tatsuya Sudou. All at once, her bubbly cheer melts away, especially when Tsubasa puts it into words that Maria can understand. "That's... really bad," she says, wrapping her arms around her abdomen. "Really bad... Okay. If I see a man like that, I'll run from him, too." She might have good cheer and a certain perseverance, but she's not absolutely senseless. Throwing her life away for no reason is... it'd make her mother and grandmother sad, to start.
On top of that, there's a bunch of flavors of supernatural space to be aware of.
"A lizard... running a hotel..." Maria echoes, and one can already imagine the image that must be forming in that empty mindspace of hers. 'Hello', says the lizard in a suit, welcoming people who arrive with their luggage--
"Oh, the train stations thing? With Meta-Nav? Yeah!" she affirms, going for her phone. "See? I've got it. It's helped me find places to go! He told me what I needed to do with it. I guess I'll need to make my own crew at some point, huh? But for right now, I'm still learning. And... yeah. I asked him about what happens after midnight, so I'm not worried about it or anything." But there's more. A webring... in net-cafes? Maria nods along. "I'll ask him! I haven't heard about that before. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a net-cafe...!" One gets the feeling she doesn't go to them much on her own.
"It seems pretty straight forward, though. Hey, let's go to one of those places sometime. It's always best to train with someone else, right? I want to see if I can get a new best time, hehe," she says to Tsubasa with a wink.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Yeah! If you cast it, it'll give ya an extra 'punch'. Like knuckle-dusters!" Tsubasa, don't tell Maria about ILLEGAL WEAPONS. They lean forward, examining Maria's Patra card, and nod firmly. "Yup. That's one a 'em, too. You can find 'em all over... like I found a bunch raidin' Mementos."
They nod again, thoughtflly, when Maria goes on about Shadows and Demons. "Yup," is their eloquent response to Shadows being dicks. They do look a little surprised to hear Maria made a Pact with a Slime -- but just for a moment, before they accept it. "Cool." Drum, drum, their fingers drum against their knee. "Nekomata are like... catgirls," is how Tsubasa puts it, quite bluntly. "Jus' not as hot." Tsubasa you can't just SAY that -- "An' Silkies are like, these green fairies with scarves on their heads what like cleanin' shit?"
They look assured, at least, that Maria will run from ninjas. They haven't thought about whether she'll consider them a ninja in their ninja garb, though...
"Oh, uh --" they do cut in, though, hearing Maria make the same mistake they did (kind of). "He ain't Tatsuya Suou. They like, different, people. Actually, Sudou kept fuckin' up Suou. Uh -- an' -- ain't neither a them puzzles."
They could get pulled into that side-tracking, but they're busy trying to get Maria up to speed!!!
"Yeah," they affirm, when she realises how bad the Black Mask is. "You're good at runnin', tho', yeah? Hopefully, ya ain't gotta meet him to begin with... but even I couldn't call him on his shit when he took a little girl hostage." Tsubasa frowns, and adds, a moment later: "Uh, the girl was okay, tho'. I checked up on her after... she was real shaken up, but she wanted to get into protectin' people an' shit, so she's at least, like, findin' somethin' she can do about that fear. Told her to get into Featherman an' shit, 'cuz her whole family's bad at doin' stuff on their own... figured those shows are all about teamwork an' shit. Y'know."
Hopefully they didn't say 'shit' so much when talking to the nine year old... even though they definitely fall for giving Maria a lot of things to daydream about when they're talking to her. But hey, ain't nothin' wrong with appreciatin' hotel lizards!
"Sweet," they nod, looking to Maria's phone when she shows them. "... yeah," they add, after a moment to listen longer. "You'll wanna find a crew to run with... like, I'm part a th' Phantom Thieves. We watch each other's backs while we're takin' shit on... it's good. Reckon you won't have too much trouble findin' someone solid neither," they add, thoughtfully. "You're a real magnetic personality, y'know?"
They grin, though, as they stand themself up. "Hey, you wanna go in now?" They ask, conspiratorially. "I'll show ya a trick to gettin' around usin' Mementos... an' if we go in now, no one'll see us leavin' this joint, neither. Perfect crime." Tsubasa, don't encourage Maria to do crimes!!!!
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Knuckle-dusters?" Maria echoes, before realization breaks over her mountain. "Oh! Like brass knuckles! Only, as a spell. Got it!" Every now and then, a blind pig turns up an acorn, and Maria apparently watches too many movies.
To be fair, the Slime also did help them understand how to make a pact, so perhaps these things can just mutually happen sometimes, to no ill effect for either party. Maybe there's some justice in this world if a girl like her can stumble into something good for a change? "Oh, like catgirls," Maria says, looking a little disappointed. "I was hoping there'd be more kitties," she explains. "Sometimes there are cat monsters in things?" she adds, by way of explanation. A Silky, meanwhile, is a green fairy. "Housekeeping fairies... I wonder if I can ask one to help me out," she muses.
"No, no, he's not Suou-sempai!" Maria says, waving both hands before her as if to brush the very matter aside altogether. "I know he's not! Suou-sempai's skipping school, but he's not a bad person. He helped me out once." She pauses. "Well, it would be weird if a math puzzle killed people..."
But is it the weirdest thing she's seen lately??
"I used to run with the track team!" Maria confirms, nodding enthusiastically as she explains. "I'm still really fast. --What?" She's aghast, her expression flipflopping from cheerfully confident agreement about what she'd do if she met with Black Mask to what he'd done with a child. "Oh, that's a relief! That must have been really scary..." What kind of person threatens to hurt a child like that? It only drives home what sort of person Black Mask actually is...
If Maria notices the fact that Tsubasa is swearing so much, she doesn't give any indication: it appears to wash over her like water over a duck.
"I wonder if there are hotel turtles," Maria says, which might also explain where her mind is at, vis a vis 'paying attention' outside some of the important parts. Fortunately, Tsubasa is making sure to verbally underline those parts. In triplicate!
"It's weird, huh? It just appeared," and here she mimes an explosion with her hands, ka-pow!, as she talks about the mystery app. "But it's helped a lot! Igor-san explained it pretty well. But, yeah! I've gotta strike out on my own eventually, right? You need a group of friends to do this with. And, like, I consider you a friend?" She pauses, tilting her head to one side. "But, I want to figure out what I want. That's what that was all about. I shouldn't just go and be part of someone else's stuff, even if I like it. I need to figure out what I want to do with this power. And what I can do to help people."
It's the only real way she can 'atone', after all.
But Tsubasa agrees to Maria's suggestion that they should at least train until she can get her training wheels off, so to speak, and suggests they do so right now. "Right now? Sure, okay!" she cheers, rising to her feet. "So we can leave here using Mementos? That's handy!"
All too swiftly does Maria slip closer to a life of crime...