2026-04-08: Shrimply Delicious
- Log: Shrimply Delicious
- Cast: Shinjiro Aragaki, Umie Akabane
- Where: Hagakure Ramen, Tatsumi Port Island
- OOC Date: April 08, 2026
- IC Date: October 22, 2012
- Summary: Shinjiro invites Umie out to catch up over delicious tempura shrimp at Hagakure Ramen. While Umie is reluctant to reveal much about herself, she's more interested in hearing about Shinjiro's resolve to live and make future plans, in spite of his diagnosis.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro's had a heck of a week after the crash of the Sumaru zeppelin and the death of Tatsuya Sudou. He's mostly kept to himself, attempting to process his feelings, but he does need to start talking to the people he cares about and not only get help in doing so, but maybe help them as well. Besides, mysteries never end around here.
Therefore, he texted Umie, inviting her to Hagakure Ramen. The chef is someone he knows personally, having learned a lot about cooking here, and he's grabbed a quiet back booth so they have room to talk if necessary.
He's in his coat and beanie, having placed an order for tempura shrimp for the two of them, his favorite indulgence, which he texted about ahead of time. It hasn't come out yet.
When Umie reaches the booth, Shinjiro's lost in thought, though he'll snap out of it once he spots her, a casual two-finger wave. "Yo. Doing okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
The mysteries definitely never end. No sooner did Sudou die than the force within him sprout up, insinuating that things would only continue due to the fear that had been spread.
As for what could be happening next, Umie has no clue. Maybe another person will become the next Joker Killer; perhaps that is the true cost of the Marks. Sudou had a Mark, so...
Though, did he get his before or after the fire? What is the truth? Will she become the next Joker Killer?
.... There's nothing she can do about it, for now. Maybe, keeping the fragment will help.
"... I wanted to make you another cake, but mid-terms rammed into me," Umie groans, as she flops into the booth seat opposite Shinjiro. "Lots of shifts to make up, and we're only beginning to get back to normal now." The studying part Umie won't talk about, as that's the part she doesn't mind. Watching Ren and Kurou study while she made tea with Shiryuu was weirdly one of the warmest moments she's felt, in a long while.
Her outfit is slightly different: a pink windbreaker to beat out the mid-fall chill, over a simple white baseball tee, with cuffs that extend past the jacket with a hole to poke each thumb through. Her hairbuns, having been pinned into place after her shift, sag slightly.
"What about you?" She leans on her wrist. "How does it feel, now that he's gone?" Her grin turns slightly sharp. "Be truthful with me, Shinji-kun."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"You don't need to do that," Shinjiro comments about the cake immediately. "Fuck, my grades probably suck right now." A sigh. "I studied a bit, but I've had a shitty-ass month, more than just Sumaru."
A pause. He should probably tell her upfront, since he's still sore and healing. "Strega's tactician ambushed me during the day, put me in the hospital. Jin Shirato. Wanted revenge for hurting one of his members fighting Sudou. It's a whole load of shit. Checked out and immediately got into a burning museum based on a hunch. My luck, right?"
A sigh, before actually answering Umie's question. He looks a bit uncomfortable. "I don't know. Empty? I didn't want him to die. But even if he hadn't, it's... there's something hollow about all of this. He's gone, but he was just a symptom of the actual problem. Shitty people doing shitty things to young people and then getting away with it while we have to take the consequences. He didn't deserve to die like that. No one does."
An exhale. "Your turn."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"There's always finals," Umie says. "And there were a number of other SEES members there, right? I doubt they were having a great time either."
But Shinjiro in particular... Umie grimaces sympathetically. "What the heck? Don't they know you're a part of SEES now? Might as well kick a hornet nest and see where it gets them." Even if SEES doesn't strike Umie as particularly reactive, due to their foundations. "And then..." She groans. "I've seen people in their time of Joka with better luck than you, at this point..." Its a well-meaning joke, given their investigations in Sumaru City.
Turns out, 'Joka' had nothing to do with Joker, no matter how much Umie tried to force the question early on, when there were no leads to go on. They just sounded the same.
Glancing at that unease on Shinjiro's face, Umie sighs.
Ah, Umie, you did it again. It was Shinjiro, after all, who was one of the first to go stand by Sudou's side. "Sorry, that was shitty of me. It's really not that simple at all. You did good, going over there so he wouldn't die alone."
Whatever complications she has pale in comparison to Shinjiro's. She nods, listening. "Yeah. Two things can be right, at the same time. Left to rot away from the public eye, instead of seeing proper justice... who's to say he would have gotten the help he needed, but..."
She trails off, looking at her nails, painted apricot orange: a zesty fall color. "I don't know who could have helped him. He may have been one of the first who was Marked, as far as we know... and it seems his powers were all just a means to an end."
No one was coming to help or stop him. No one could, either.
Her turn, Shinjiro says.
Instead of actually answering, Umie turns to information, instead.
"I've done some investigation into one of the fragments of that bullet our masked hitman used. Apparently, to seems to maybe block out the force behind the Mark, but a friend of mine--" ha ha ha Shiryuu Ryouhara, but she's sure as hell not saying that in front of the guy who was attacked by him "--has reasons to believe it's dangerous in its own right. Maybe, like... a poison, that deals with another poison."
She knows she can't hold it for very long without feeling uncomfortable, but is that because of the Mark, or something else? "Aside from that, demons just start rambling about 'yellow-blue', and don't even *try* to show it to Shadows of any kind. They go dangerously still just looking at it, then, just go nuts."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"That's true." Shinjiro sighs, though, and raps his knuckles against the table as the shrimp and menus are delivered, along with waters. "That's the thing. We can't act. Shirato threatened Amada, said he knows his route home." The boy whose life he ruined and yet has to protect.
But about Sudou... "I don't know if he could have ever been different. But... as I saw him die, I wondered, 'will this be me someday?'. And I didn't want to leave him at that."
Umie answers with intel instead of actually answering, and Shinjiro frowns, but listens. "It was blocking out the Mark, not the Persona? I gave the one I recovered to Kirijo to see if she could do anything with it, figure out what it was. If the conspiracy has it, then I'm really not worried about it accidentally ending up in corp hands, you know?"
"Yellow-blue... like, green?" Shinjiro muses. "Ugh. I don't know what to do going forward. This is all a mess."
And then, he takes a shrimp, dips it in the sauce, and eats it. "Okay, enough deflecting. How are you *feeling*? You get to have time to vent too, you know."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"..." As soon as Umie hears Amada is threatened... "... That's... that kid, right?" She makes a face. "That's just low..."
She ponders. "Though... this is just if you guys retaliate right back, right?" She sighs, shaking her head as the food and drinks arrive. "I hate to say it, but it's probably for the best. They have more experience with retaliation than SEES does... It'll just cause a closed loop of escalating violence. And right now, I'd imagine they'll be less active without Sudou to prime the area for supernatural phenomena." She sips her water. "If you think about it.. I'd say you already did retaliate: by trying to ensure Sudou was stopped."
The choice of words is intentional: 'stopped' didn't mean 'dead'. If it weren't for Black Mask... But would anything have been able to stop Sudou from escaping?
"It won't be like that. I promise," she says, softly. "You're not a lone wolf anymore."
Will that really make him feel any better?
Shinjiro asks the right question. Umie stated a fact, but never said *how* she even knew. "I mean... if you meant that weird Persona he had, I'd assume so." No, Shinjiro has a point. If the bullet did do that, assuming what she's found out, is it really as simple as 'hold fragment, Mark is blocked'? It's not like Umie can test it.
Or explain further.
It is, indeed, all a mess.
She takes a shrimp after Shinjiro takes the first one, gaze looking up, then back down.
"What is there even to say that hasn't been already said?" she murmurs, dipping the shrimp and eating it, following it with a sip of water. "We both had the Mark, and there's likely a few people who'd probably think I'm liable to do the same shit if they found out about mine. Maybe they're right, but not if I'm in my right mind."
Umie can see her, in the reflection of her glass as she sets it down: rich red silk, pale skin, and black hair, distorted to the barest suggestions of who it is, but she sees it.
She refuses to acknowledge it, beyond that initial doubletake. After all, she knows it won't show up for Shinjiro.
And indeed, it won't, for Shinjiro. There will just be Umie, glancing down at her glass and then back up, before she lifts it to drink again.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"...yeah," Shinjiro replies. "I don't think he knows our connection, but that just makes it worse. He threatened a kid because he's an 'easy' target."
"...we'll have to see what she wants to do. Kirijo's the leader, after all." He sighs, trapped as he feels, until Umie says he's not a lone wolf anymore. But he leaves that hanging.
"I wonder... if it had shot me or someone else, would my Persona also be blocked? We don't want to find out."
Umie expresses her worry in her own way. "You're not like him. You get to choose who you'll be, not some mark on your skin. If he's responsible for his actions, so are you for yours, and so far, I think you've done your best."
An exhale, as he circles back. "I hope someone will think I have, too."
Dhinjiro stares into his own water. "...I told Aki that I'm dying. SEES knows now, too, after..."
He looks up to Umie, waiting so she's not drinking. "...they learned I had traded information to Strega, before I returned to the group. I did it for my meds and the evoker I bought, gave names of Persona Users I knew. Nothing... useful, really, but I still did it. I didn't tell anyone about Amada, they wouldn't understand, but...
"Even if they're upset, they didn't reject me. Even Kirijo and Aki told me they wouldn't give up on me, that they'll help me. It's... worse than being rejected, in a way. Knowing that I have to fight, now, when I was so ready to give up. But I want to live."
A short beat. "I want to live so badly. I need to try. But Uchida at the detective agency, she told me I should maybe consider looking into a street food permit or something. She'd help me. That scared me too, that I could just... be a human again. Be alive."
He looks at the shrimp again, but doesn't take one.
"I'd already written myself off as dead."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"I doubt it. Even if he did, it wouldn't change the fact that it's a low blow." Umie taps a finger on the table. "Tell you what. If you need any help protecting him, let me know. I'm not like Yamagishi-san or Kawase-san, but in a pinch, I can at least be *something*."
In spite of what it seemed like to many when everyone was trying to figure out what these strange unique powers were, Umie's abilities, while strong enough to enable her survival, aren't like people like them, or, on the other side of the coin, people like the Bride. All these years, and yet...
No wonder the Order never went after her, then.
As for the fragment? "I don't know." Umie grimaces. "What's for certain is that guy wanted us to know it was him, and what he was willing to do to all of us, if we became worth the price of a bullet to take us down." There's a bitterness underlying the last part of that sentence, the occasional tap of her nail against the counter growing insistent.
.... and then, she reaches for another shrimp. "I know. I'm not like him."
She was molded another way, wasn't she? To have someone by your side for years and years, prodding you, being your friend, declaring they were the only one who truly knew you...
The shrimp lingers in her hand. "You think so, huh."
The topic turns to Shinjiro, letting Umie focus back on him. "You did, and you will," she says, simply, the shrimp popped finally in her mouth. "100." She gives him a wry smile. "You wouldn't think me a liar, would you?"
He's told Aki that he was dying.
"... I see." Umie nods, her expression softening. "You did the right thing, telling him. And SEES... I take it, they've come to their own individual acceptance too."
The news about Strega, Umie already knows, but SEES now knowing it... "You did the right thing. People can't come in and expect everyone to be perfect saints, just because that's the way they want the world to be. They have to know the risks, and that someone like you would understand, if theirs follows similar behavior."
It's worse than being rejected.
Umie grins. "Isn't it weird, how that goes...? Maybe because rejection is a simple step. Being accepted... well, now you have to turn the page, and see that it's blank." She gestures towards Shinjiro with another shrimp. "And now... you have to fill it yourself."
Shinjiro wants to be alive. To be human. It's the thing she's been wanting to hear from Shinjiro, all this time.
"And... it sounds like you want to, as well."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"...I appreciate that. You ever see him out there, keep an eye on him? ...that goes for all of them. I know, I know, they're not your responsibility, but... SEES is full of good people. Better than I've ever been."
An exhale, as Shinjiro trips on a bad habit. He pops a shrimp into his mouth to distract from it.
"I do. If you weren't, you wouldn't care about someone like me. You're a good person, or at least, you're trying to be."
He takes a sip of his water. "I dunno, you seem like a trickstery sort. They lie, don't they?" He teases to deflect the point, before moving in. "SEES... they're handling it the best they can, I think. I should have never kept it from them, but it feels like a deep shame, resting inside me."
"...I do." Shinjiro tells Umie, as she tells him about blank pages and how he wants it, too. "...yeah. I really do. I want to have the life I thought was lost to me. I know I've thrown away a lot, but if they can do something, if they won't give up on me, neither can I... even if some days that's harder to believe than others, I *have* to believe it. I can't run away anymore."
He glances aside to call the server, who's been giving them space due to their conversation. They should probably order actual meals.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Umie nods, on the subject of Ken. "I will. Then again, I'd do it for any nine year old kid I'd see in danger." Did Shinjiro ever say Ken had a Persona? If he did, that'd be even younger than than she was.
...
It'd be easier to say, to Shinjiro extending it to all of SEES, that Umie would. But, for better or worse, she doesn't, instead giving Shinjiro one of her playful little smiles.
"I don't know," she murmurs. "I've already told you this, but a group of SEES managed to keep me from..." The sentence lingers, as she realizes she and Shinjiro are doing the same thing, if in different ways.
Her smile turns into a smirk. "No copying~" She knows he wasn't. It's been there inside him, long before they ever met each other.
"You could say that," Umie says, on the subject of being a trickster, before popping a sauce-laden shrimp into her mouth. "Can't help," she starts, after swallowing it down, "if my Persona leads me astray."
Which is bullshit, of course, and her smile proves that, though it softens as the topic changes. "Everyone's learning as they go. Especially SEES."
Especially them, if Tamaki's words about what caused the Dark Hour are true.
"As someone who has no strict allegiances to any one group, I'm better suited to help than some, though beware if my methods become messy," she warns. "But I don't see complications that *could* come up."
Why even bring it up at all then, _Umie Akabane_?
Some things aren't as straightforward as Umie would like them to be. Others...
"Move forward and grab it, with all you can, Shinji-kun." ... are much easier. "Especially if it's food. Imagine just how much business you'd make, being an Awakened food vendor, when the Dark Hour hits. It's not like we can jump into a burger joint and pick up something to go."
Shinjiro looks aside to the server, and Umie chuckles. "Right, we should order something, shouldn't we? The tempura shrimp does sound good..."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"He's eleven," Shinjiro playfully corrects. "Good kid, though... he deserves better than what I've given him."
He sighs, but as Umie starts on SEES, and then scolds him about copying... "How do we know you aren't copying me? Like senpai, like kouhai, you know?" oh no he's back on that bullshit. But it's proof that he's doing a little better in the moment after venting, at least, with the help of her smirks.
"You can't solve things without a little mess," he says with a melancholic smile. He thinks he's messy as fuck, after all.
"What, do you expect me to carry a burner around in the Dark Hour? Carry my dingy little cart into Mementos and sit at the side of the station feeding human and Demon alike?" He's joking. Probably.
"You sure like those shrimp, huh? They're my favorite. Liked them since I was a kid. I'm probably just going to get my usual ramen. Everything here's good though, no joke."
He's glad he can have an outside friendship like this. Even if both he and Umie are damaged people, it just makes it better they've been brought together as friends.