2026-07-07: No Relation

From Velvet Room MUSH Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search 
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.

    A few days ago, Ren let the rest of The Phantoms know that there's an urgent meeting happening today about a sudden strange development in Mementos--that they need to discuss the change of the heart of someone who's in the process of developing a Palace. Any requests for more details are met with a request to appear for said meeting, and Hibari will explain everything--and that Futaba's coming too.
    
    Today, Thursday, they've once again arranged their room for a whole lot of guests. They might need to go to a yard sale or something somewhere to get more chairs at this rate. By the time everyone arrives, there's /more or less/ enough space for everyone to sit; some folks will need to squeeze up on the bed and/or the couch, though. Not everyone might have made it, so it depends.
    
    Naturally, there are snacks and drinks. Not as much as during the Halloween movie night, because Ren's not made of money (or at least, they pay their pound of flesh for it through their many, many part-time jobs), but no one's going to go hungry or thirsty, at least.
    
    Once everyone's arrived and settled in, Ren--who, as usual, is seated at their desk with Morgana--greets them all with a nod. "Hey. Thanks for coming by on such short notice, guys. I know we've got a lot going on with that Christmas Village thing and finals coming up."
    
    Morgana clears his throat, paw raised to his mouth. "Now, as Ren mentioned to you all, Hibari guided them, Futaba and me to a spot in Mementos where a certain Shadow's in the middle of breaching the level of distortion needed for a Palace. Futaba and I took a close look, and it's absolutely certain: that Palace is going to take shape in eight days--assuming the worst-case scenario."
    
    "Not a lot of time to make a decision," Ren says. "Still, we've got our rules and standards. We need to all agree. So I'm letting Hibari explain whose heart we need to change. I've mentioned him before too--Kenzo Aoki, third year at Shujin, has screwed over a lot of other kids before and hid behind his family's influence to avoid consequences--but I only skimmed the details... and more importantly, Hibari wants to be a part of the mission. So."
    
    They nod to her. "Take it away." 

<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.

Hibari sometimes brings snacks too, but unfortunately -

Well, her budget isn't all that much better than Ren's. She can frequently make it go further with creative cooking, but that's just paying in time instead of money, and with exams coming up that's at a premium too. That said, she does feel responsible for this meeting... So she contributed, but that just means some of the Calbees were hers.

Sorry, Thieves. You'll have to come back another time for something homemade.

Hibari also arrived early. She's known to most of the Phantom Thieves, though some of them have spoken to her more in her Mujina mask. Outside of it she is a heavyset third-year with ombre hair, shading from her natural colour ('dark') to a vibrant red. It's December, so she's in wide-legged pants rather than a skirt, with a green top that she definitely picked to accent her hair.

She's never been up here before. Hibari isn't quite sure what she expected out of Ren's room but she's not sure this is it. She made a point of only looking at what was intentionally out (with a compliment for their plant) rather than being her inquisitive (or nosy) self.

Hibari has stolen one of the actual seats because she knows she's going to be talking, and has made sure it's one that all the other obvious sitting places (including the bed and couch) can see, but she wasn't sure she was going to be put on the spot right away! Still, better to get it over with...

"Ah, hello," she says, half-rising from her seat. "First of all: yes, I'm Hibari Aoki, and he's Kenzo Aoki, but there's no relation." Hibari is quick to bring *that* possible awkwardness up: that she's chosen to ask the Thieves about someone she's related to. It's not that unusual, either; Aoki is in the top fifty family names nationwide.

She descends back to sitting afterwards. "So. Where do I start?" Hibari taps one finger against her thigh. "I guess I'll go through the history first, and then answer questions about his Shadow. Unless you think I should do it otherwise?" Hibari glances over toward Ren as if she expects a response.
Haru Okumura has arrived from Historia: The White Chronicle. 

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.

Ichika's here, and Ichika could start handling snacks, actually; she has the money and the inclination. Maybe she will. But today...

"It's cool," Ichika says to Ren first. "I'm always here for Hibari-chan. She's one of mine." A nod to Hibari. "So whatever you need, I'm in. If we don't agree to change his Heart..."

"Maybe I can figure something else out with you."

Then she pauses. Where does she start?

"History then questions sounds good to me," Ichika says. She's standing, her arms crossed; in this matter she's more than just a member of the team; she's the Thorn Boss. And that comes with a certain prickliness. 

<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.

 
Futaba is sitting cross-legged on Ren's bed because she also got here early. (Though she is not a formal member - at least as of yet - she may have input... or she just showed up.) She has acquired a small stack of norisenbei crackers and a bottle of orange juice. The senbei crackers are getting removed from their single-unit packaging and demolished in a steady yet relentless way.

When Hibari speaks, her head shifts. Somehow, it makes the ceiling light reflect off of her glasses.

"*chew*"

... That's not a very illuminating report, but Hibari is the querent here. 

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.

    Tsubasa's still dressed in their Kasugayama uniform -- the boys' uniform, one notes, though they've tied the jacket around their midsection in the manner of the ladies. They stand beside Ichika, and their arms, too, are folded over their chest.

    They grunt affirmatively, nodding to her; today's hair is aqua and pink in a big metalhead shock.

    They're with the Thorn Boss on this one...

<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.

Ryuji yawns as the meeting begins, leaning back against his seat. "No prob, dude." He says of short notice.

 He is already in the snacks by the time they are perceived. He nods his head as he tries to pick out the spices and flavors...just for fun.

 As Hibari speaks, the blonde delinquent just remains silent, occasionally stealing a glance at Ichika. When she asks a question, he grins and waves his hand. "Start where ever. We don't gotta system." He is trying to be friendly to Hibari rather than dismissive.

 He turns his head to look at Tsubasa, wondering if he needs to step up his hair game to be shocking. 

<Pose Tracker> Haru Okumura has posed.

Haru is here, too! Perhaps she'd be willing to collaborate with Ichika on the matter of handling snacks, but for now... they have bigger things to worry about. Like the formation of a new Palace.

Haru would be more familiar with Hibari as she is now than in her Mujina mask, as a mutual friend of Ren's. "Hello again, Hibari-chan. It's nice to see you again... if under rather different circumstances." She smiles, gently. Perhaps it'd be a surprise to learn that the sweet gardening girl was another Phantom Thief all along!

 For now, though, Haru's mostly in listening mode. She's unfamiliar with the situation, even if, as a fellow third year at Shujin, she'd know of Kenzo Aoki. "Let's hear the history, first, if that's okay? I'm not quite sure what to ask for just yet..." 

<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.

    Ren nods back to Ichika. Naturally she and Tsubasa would be on board. In the full course of the narrative, everyone is going to agree to a change of heart, especially since Kenzo really is a bastard, but right now all they've got is what they know about their friends.
    
    "That works for me. Context always helps," Ren replies. Haru proves their point by admitting she doesn't know what to ask otherwise, though hopefully Ryuji's easygoing attitude about it all helps put Hibari at ease either way.
    
    Futaba and Tsubasa are both stoic presences, though each of them has a distinct flavor to their silence. Ren can appreciate that.
    
    For now, they look back at Hibari and wait for her to continue. 

<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.

When the urgent message appeared in the Phantoms group chat, Yusuke Kitagawa was in the middle of a project. With deadlines looming, the young artist was faced with a dilemma: Abandon his friends, or slow his work?

He split the difference.

So he's here, having taken another chair, knee crossed over his leg to support his sketchbook. While it appears as though he's focused entirely on the paper, occasionally his eyes flick up to Hibari to indicate that he's paying attention to her explanation. 

<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.

Reassured, such as it is, Hibari gives a nod. "All right. Sorry, I don't talk about this much," she admits. She told Ichika, and Ren (and Morgana), and that was about it. She knows Tsubasa has heard some of it, but Hibari's never precisely sat them down and given them the whole story, and everyone else -

Well, all she said was that it might be a good idea to stay away from Kenzo.

Honestly, she feels like she's a little on trial. Which isn't great! But she knows that Ichika and Tsubasa have her back even if they have to look a little strict right now, and certainly Ren and Morgana approve enough to have set up this meeting in the first place. Especially with Futaba backing her analysis up.

"So, I'm not from Sumaru," she says. Which sounds like a non sequitur until she continues: "I moved there a couple years ago from a much smaller town... my father used to have a restaurant, a shokudo, but he works at an izakaya now. So I showed up at a new school and I didn't know anybody, so I didn't exactly have friends either. The school I was at did seats alphabetically, and I ended up next to him. We got to talking. We ended up friends over the next couple months, or so I thought. We weren't... exactly dating, but we weren't exactly not, either."

"That went on for a while," Hibari says. "He knew how to be charming, at least." This accords with what Haru might know of him; he's reasonably popular, though he can come off as self-centered if you're not one of the people in his circle or that he pays attention to. "So I didn't think much of it when he invited me out one afternoon. I thought he *was* going to ask me on a date, maybe."

A pause as Hibari reaches for her drink. "He'd gotten some alcohol from somewhere. And it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. And, uh... we got drunk by the time it was night. We did some vandalism... I don't remember all the details, but I remember... he broke in somewhere, threw something through the window. The police showed up after that."

"And the police were all on his side! Or at least they were by the next day," Hibari says, "once they figured out who he was, and his family'd shown up. He said I must have stolen the alcohol from the izakaya, and that I made him break in to steal something for me..." She trails off. "I know I didn't steal the alcohol. None of it was missing! My father backed me up, but they weren't interested, the police said he must be covering for me, and that it's no surprise I wasn't raised better, especially since it was just him - my mother didn't move to Subaru with us. And I wouldn't have done the - the stealing. Marking up a wall's not the same thing as breaking in...!"

"But... they decided it was my fault anyway. He has the kind of parents who think everything he does is perfect, that he can't possibly do anything wrong..." Hibari looks down. "And when he had me alone, afterwards, on the way out - he bragged that his family could solve all his problems, that his uncle could just make them go away. And there'd always be some hick like me to take the blame, who the police wouldn't believe."

She gestures, vaguely, at Tsubasa's uniform. "So I got sent to reform school. Akiyama until that closed, then Kasugayama. And he moved out here to Tokyo, with his uncle, and he goes to Shujin, and nobody hears about his past, because as far as anyone cares it's all my fault and he's just an innocent lamb." Hibari looks up again. "I know I didn't do everything right. I messed up, I did something I shouldn't have. But I didn't do what the police accused me of, and I hate that he can just - get away with it!"

Hibari shakes her head. "It was a while after that that I got into Mementos. I've got the Meta-Nav, too. I didn't mean to get in the first time. I found that he had a Shadow there, but I had to run away from it... that was the first time I called Danzaburou, actually. Ever since then I've gone back to check on it every so often, and made sure he didn't have a Palace. But the last time I went, it felt a little weird."

"My Persona is the kind that people call a Navigator, but it wasn't anything I'd seen before, though I could tell it was changing. I had a guess, though. It felt like it was... stretching, getting further away or bigger, so I came to ask Ren-kun, to see if it was anything the Phantom Thieves knew about or had seen before." Hibari gestures when she speaks most of the time. She is now, sweeping arm motions. "Because I thought that maybe... has anyone seen how a Palace forms? I thought maybe they ... bubbled up from Mementos, and found somewhere to attach, or reached out to somewhere significant to them. Like that bank."

"That's why we went back down to Mementos, with her," Hibari nods toward Futaba. "So that's brought us up to last week, at least." 

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.

Ichika and Haru collab! That's a fine idea. But today...

Ichika can be kind of strict when she's serious. Right now... it's because she knows the story, and she doesn't like it.

When Hibari relates it, Ichika frowns--but it's more sympathetic than angry. "Still bullshit," Ichika says. "That he'd act like that. That you'd have to take the fall."

She has similar feelings, after all. But...

Well, underage drinking that she used to do too aside--

"I haven't seen that," Ichika says. "But it sounds like if we don't act, things are gonna get worse."

"I'm in, obviously. Hibari-chan deserves better than she got, and I bet this guy's not done with that kind of behavior. If he gets a Palace too... That means he'll be able to be even worse, right?" 

<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.

 
munch munch

The other Phantom Thieves are given looks from Futaba, though it's been more of a general 'I know these people' acknowledgement without words as they came in. Now she's looking at, or at least, *towards* Hibari.

Ah, a fellow child of the restaaurant industry. Futaba takes a sip of her juice, and she shifts herself to straighten up, marginally. She unwraps another senbei cracker and munches through it as Hibari tells them about the full and complete story of what led up to this.

Which *does* engage her. The cracker is not being munched very quickly.

Adjusting her glasses, Futaba says, "I can't be scientific, since we don't have a sample size. But..."

"The space around the Shadow was starting to distort Mementos, though. How can I explain it..."

Futaba considers the matter for a moment.

"... hmm..."

She takes another sip of the drink.

"... ahh..."

"W-well, she was right," Futaba says with a wiltingly nervous tinge to her voice. "While I was watching it for a couple of minutes I could tell the opening was narrowing and getting longer... So that's when I was able to estimate when it'd reach the point where that guy couldn't walk in... and when it'd get so small not even Morgana could get through it. After that, it'd close to nothing eventually. It'd be a total detachment." (Morgana being the smallest Phantom Thief, at least until Hamtaro joins.)

"There's a ton of unknowns... ...but a Palace is huge and complex, right? Right now it's just kind of a room with the Shadow in it." 

<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.

Ryuji listens to the story of small town betrayal and finds a serious, angry expression on his face. "Dude. For real? So he just used his shitty parents to make it all go away. Fuck that." He sighs to let out some of the frustration of not having a face to punch now.

 "So this guy is currently making his own palace? I mean--we gonna stop that or keep watch of it?" Ryuji blinks, looking to Ren for his opinion. "Like I get wanting to know how they work but these things have a habit of biting us in the ass, ya know?"

 "Like it might be easier to deal with this guy before he gets anymore distorted...Thats my vote anyway." 

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.

    Tsubasa could give Ryuji /so/ many hair tips... but /Ichika/ would know more about the /dye.

    They're wearing a wig, after all.

    Right now, they're echoing Ichika; and in this way, they're standing in support of Hibari. It's a subtle indication that they're loyal to her, too.

    There's just one thing that can break their concentration, as their scowling demeanour places them at the exact zenith opposite of their fellow berserker's day visage...

    ... leaning over to sneak a peek at what Yusuke's doing.

    (Look, they're an artist, they gotta check it.)

    "It's cool," they rumble, when Hibari apologises for not talking about it much. They don't say that they'll kick anyone's ass if they judge her, but, well, it's inferred.

    They knew Hibari didn't like to drink, of course. (They do. It's illegal at their age, so they've been trying to avoid it, but not without the occasional regret.) But, the details...

    Tsubasa's not the kind of guy to pry. Their blue eyes narrow, as they hear the rest of it.

    "I'm in," they say, firmly.

    "Let's fuck him up."

<Pose Tracker> Haru Okumura has posed.

Haru listens to the entirety of Hibari's story - very quietly. Not the type of girl to have loud outbursts of anger, it isn't visible in her expression, but there's a quiet anger for Hibari's sake behind it. "To abuse one's privilege and to hide mistakes behind a family name... it's unforgivable." She says, and it's because she has that very same privilege that she feels that way.

"It also means he's unwilling to change, right?" Haru adds, when Ichika points out that if they don't act, it's likely Kenzo will only get worse. "If we could change his heart before it gets worse... perhaps Ryuji-kun has a point here." It could be dangerous, to enter a Palace that is not yet fully formed... but letting that distortion blossom might be even more dangerous.

"If that's what you want to do Hibari-chan... I'm with you!"

<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.

The quiet, persistent scratching of pencil on paper underscores Hibari's explanation, as Yusuke works. As she continues to speak, however, it slows, until he has set pencil down and looked up fully.

"If the distortion associated with his Shadow in Mementos is changing, and potentially becoming a Palace..." Here, he looks towards Morgana, as their close-enough-to-an-expert on the specific interactions of distorted desires and Palace formation. "Doesn't that suggest that not only is he continuing to perform the kind of deeds that placed Hibari in her current situation, but the severity or frequency of his actions is increasing?" 

<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.

    Ren's expression is grim as Hibari's story reaches its climax. They've already heard this before, sure, but they empathize with that frustration at being innocent but taking the blame anyway. "Yeah," they chime in after Ichika.
    
    Morgana meanwhile tells Ichika, "Not necessarily. It just means his distorted view has gotten that much worse--having a Palace doesn't give him power in and of itself. But if his family and the police are already enabling him... it's pretty likely." Yusuke asks a very good question, and Morgana frowns. (Partly because he doesn't actually know the answer for certain. Amnesia sucks!!) "That's very likely," he decides on.
    
    To Futaba, Morgana adds, "That's right. So unless we want to cause ourselves a whole lot more trouble than we need, we need to take him out right away." He :3-faces at the rest. "Obviously Ren and I are on board. We can't let this guy keep getting away with these things!" (Ren nods agreement, of course.)
    
    Ren blinks back at Ryuji when he asks if they're changing his heart or just sitting back to watch. "I never even considered the second," they admit. Part of it is their principles--but even if it's as dangerous as Haru suspects, they do love the thrill of danger. It's no wonder to them that she's offended by his behavior, considering her own situation, and they give her a sympathetic look.
    
    They quirk a half-smile at Tsubasa's unequivocal buy-in, though. "Hell yeah." 

<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.

Hibari never told the Thorn Gang *why* she didn't drink, but, well... that's why. Bad experiences once can turn you off of underage drinking; who knew?

(She still uses cooking wine, though. You can't not use cooking wine.)

Hibari is clearly anxious - whether it's about talking to the Phantom Thieves about that or what she expects their response to be is unclear. Even she probably hasn't worked it all the way through consciously. She sticks, at first, to direct questions and answers about Shadows and Mementos.

"I've been watching," she says to Ryuji, almost relieved for an answer she can give. "Until recently it hadn't changed at all. It was hard to get to at first - he's in pretty deep? Deeper than I used to be able to go, at least - at least on purpose. The first time I got into Mementos, I got terribly lost before I had Danzaburou. I think I used some of his abilities without knowing, but all that did was keep me from being attacked by Shadows... But it's possible to get down that far now, so I've been keeping an eye on it."

Hibari notices Futaba is nervous and comes to her rescue. "It was like that. I thought it was moving, at first. I used my Persona to examine it, but I've never looked at something quite like it before, so I felt like I was guessing, about it turning into a Palace... I'm glad you and Morgana could give me some confirmation."

And the others agree with her...

Hibari's face brightens from the nervous expression it had been in. "Really? Thank you!" She stands, long enough to give a little half-bow at least. She looks thoughtfully at Yusuke afterwards. "I don't know if he's getting worse, but it wouldn't surprise me. He might just be... thinking worse, I suppose. Mementos is a cognitive place, after all. And I was doing some thinking too..."

"His problem is that it's all about him," Hibari says. "That he's *more important* than anyone else, that consequences don't apply... it's not quite the same as the Palace Rulers I know anything about, but I could see how he'd get there from here, you know? So maybe he's just done whatever the opposite of turning over a new leaf is. Gotten worse about it. I stay away from him these days - I don't go anywhere near Shujin if I can help it, I don't even handle Shujin rumours."

A beat. "I'm a Rumourmonger, by the way. That's mostly a Sumaru thing, but... rumours are popular there. And more often then not, they're true... and spreading them so that everybody believes can reinforce them. I suspect you, as the Thieves, have run into rumours before - " Hibari looks apologetically at Ichika. "Like the rumour about how to get into Eiji's Palace. There's a lot of weird rumours out there, a lot of urban legends - did you know Seven Sisters High has haunted library books? - but an entrance that complicated... someone asked people to spread it, I bet. Some Rumourmongers won't spread ones that *aren't* that complicated when it has to do with Palaces, because it means people can't really do them by mistake."

"That's REALLY besides the point, though. I do want to deal with him before it turns into a Palace... but I think I need to be there." Hibari straightens up in her seat. "I can handle myself if I'm with you. Ask Ichika-chan or Tsubasa-kun." Or, well, the time they helped rescue Phoenix. 

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.

Futaba has a lot of technical insight, and Ichika... surprisingly for her, seems to get it. "So it's like it bubbles off, right?" she asks. "Weird. But that means we can still get to him this way..."

A look at Ryuji. "Huh. I guess we could learn that way, but..." She doesn't like it. "Yeah, it'd be harder if we wait."

But Haru mentions--unwilling to change. Yusuke mentions he's still doing those same things.

"So, the Palace doesn't make him 'worse', but it's a sign that he is worse?" she confirms with Morgana. "Hm."

Fuck him up. That's right.

Ichika definitely didn't know about why Hibari couldn't drink, but she never pushed it. Now that she knows... She feels a little bad for doing it where Hibari could see.

It's all about him, though. Ichika scowls.

"...So people were manipulating Eiji's Palace to make it possible to get in..."

Beside the point. "Right. Well, I'm down with you going. You're good at shit, and the more people we have up to a point, the better. We have to move in small groups, but..."

"You're good at stealth." 

<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.

 
"Yeah," Futaba tells Ichika. The bubble analogy seems to Work for her, or at least isn't wrong enough to get nitpicked.

Futaba adjusts her glasses at Ryuji's question. "You can't let someone like this just get away with it."

Which is perhaps not very charitable of her. As she shifts around and comes up to hug on her legs, pulling her chest against them, Yusuke states a fact. Well, a theory, but it's stated in a way Futaba takes as a fact. It makes her frown. She stays quiet, for long moments.

She's looking at Hibari by the end of it.

"It's super slow," Futaba says. "Rate of expansion's increasing too, so it would've been even more subtle a long time ago. Sort of like the universe..."

            *~COSMIC HORROR~*

The *rest* of what she says is making Futaba get quiet again, looking at Hibari without a lot of force or tension behind it. Rumors, she thinks. Something in her is gagging about it, even if the utility is obvious. 

<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.

"Heh. Rock on." Ryuji responds to Ren's reassurances they aren't going to stand by. He listens to Morgana explain more to Yusuke, nodding along. "So like the sooner we start, the sooner this guy's bullshit stops."

 "Let's kick this guy's ass." He adds to Tsubasa's statement, cracking his knuckles.

 Ryuji nods as Hibari explains more to him. "I guess that makes sense. Maybe he's only recently gotten back to his old habits?" He reasons that out anyway.

 He blinks at Futaba's look, still unsure of how to respond to the shut in. Finally, Ryuji rubs the bridge of his nose, smiling oddly. "Look we agree we need to take care of him. So lets do it!" 

<Pose Tracker> Haru Okumura has posed.

It sounds like of the present Phantom Thieves, they're all pretty much in agreement here. "That's what I was thinking, too, Yusuke-kun." Haru nods, when he suggests that the growth of a Palace might correlate with his actions. "It takes a truly distorted heart to form a Palace, after all..." Regardless, they won't know for sure unless they stop his Shadow!

"I can agree with that, too, Futaba-chan." Haru smiles - about not just letting him get away with this. "Actions have consequences after all. And sometimes, consequences are painful~"

"I find rumours to be... quite troublesome." Haru admits, frowning. She's rather unfamiliar with the culture surrounding them in Subaru, but almost all of the Phantom Thieves who attend Shujin have some flavour or another of rumours following them. "But you don't seem like a bad person to me, Hibari-chan." She assures. "Let's do our best to change his heart!" 

<Pose Tracker> Yusuke Kitagawa has posed.

Yusuke nods, finally, hearing everyone confer over the situation. "I concur. The Palaces we've faced have been steep challenges; if we have the opportunity to nip this one in the bud before it completes its metamorphosis, we should take it - especially since it seems to still connected to Mementos, and so we won't need to deduce the appropriate access keywords." That process has set them back days before, after all. 

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.

    Tsubasa nods, firmly, to Ren. If they were the type to fist-pump, here, they would, but they're very invested in being a cool thug!!

    "You gotta be there," they agree with Hibari. "Don't reckon no one'll object. All saw how good you are back with that fuck Eiji."

    At least this fuck Kenzo might not be being even worse, but...

    But Tsubasa's still not sure he's not being the worse worst!!

    "Like... th' universe," they echo Futaba, their gaze growing distant for a moment. Are all of them a universe, in a way...?

    Questions for later. Right now, as Ryuji says, is ass-kicking time.

    "Hibari-chan's been huge keepin' shit Rumours off th' stage for us," they add, to Haru. "Ain't all spreadin' 'em. It's what ones get spread, too. Yeah?" They add the question, glancing back to Hibari.

DATE: OOC date jul 15 2026 is IC date Mon Dec 10 2012! Moon Phase: Waning Crescent.

<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.

    Ren knew the part about how Kenzo's Shadow had been stagnant, or at least nigh impossible to fight, too. Futaba compares it to the birth of the universe, though, and like Tsubasa, they grow thoughtful. That is an interesting metaphor... And all of them are stars, connected like constellations--something that humans made up. But that's what turns the connections real, isn't it? It's all... their cognition.
    
    They nod, though, about the rumors on how to get into Eiji's Palace. "We heard about those, yeah. Apparently there's alternate ways of getting into Palaces in general. I don't know much about them, though." When look into alternate routes when you have a handy-dandy navigational app? It does beg the question of WHO made those rumors, though...
    
    "You do," Ren says firmly, of Hibari being there, echoing Tsubasa. (Enbies unite!)
    
    "Exactly," Morgana tells Ichika. "A Palace is how someone views the world around them. They don't have to be doing things to think them--" he nods to Futaba, as if to silently say 'case in point,' "--but it does make it a lot likelier they're up to no good."
    
    Yusuke weighs in on the specifics. "Exactly," Morgana says. His ears perk at Ryuji's summary. "Ryuji! You actually said something sensible for once!"
    
    Ren grins at Ryuji--but then there's an awkward moment between him and Futaba. Ren doesn't do anything about it--it's good for Futaba to have some awkward moments that don't have any bad consequences, to let her know it's okay to be awkward sometimes--but they do make a note of it.
    
    Haru speaks truth, both about consequences and rumors. Ren smirks at the first and nods wryly to the second. They know all about that. "Seems like it's a unique sort of culture over in Sumaru, though," they remark. But... so Rumormongers also stifle rumors, huh... Ren hadn't realized, and Tsubasa's remark gets a thoughtful look out of them.
    
    Ann and Makoto aren't present in person currently, but they'll no doubt agree once they're filled in for another unanimous decision--maybe remotely through the group chat, maybe via speakerphone, maybe something else. Regardless, from there, they move on to...
    
    "Then we're all agreed," Ren says, getting up to their feet and tucking their hands in their pocket. Despite their casual-seeming stance, though, there's still in their face and voice. "We'll get ready over the weekend, send him the calling card on Sunday, and move in on his Shadow in Mementos on Monday. Any objections?"

<Pose Tracker> Hibari Aoki has posed.

Hibari looks right back at Futaba when Futaba looks at her. Hibari isn't shy the same way Futaba is; she dislikes direct confrontations outside the protection of her mask, but this isn't a challenging look. "The universe is only a little subtle," she jokes.

Ryuji might have the right of it, along with Haru in a different way. "If he'd been told to behave by his uncle, the one that bailed him out, he might have," Hibari says, thoughtfully. "At least for a while. Not because he was really trying to be good, just because he was trying to stay out of trouble, or not get things taken away from him. Maybe it *is* that he's going back to the way he would rather act."

Hibari grins, just a little. "I am," she agrees, about being good at stealth. "That's what I'm good at. I'm a Navigator, as I said, but I know that there are plenty who are better at analysis than I am. Futaba-chan seems to be! But I can get you in without being spotted, and out again, and I can find things when I'm there... I do have to be there, though, I can't do it from too far away. But before I worked with Ogre and Phoenix," and she uses the names intentionally, because Mujina used to be an independent operator, "I snuck into places to find information and items." Like all the papers she handed over about Eiji.

"They must have been," Hibari says, apologetically, to Ichika. "I thought you knew about that rumour, actually. It was... go to the carpark and find an unlocked car, tune the radio a certain way, and recite part of A Midsummer Nights' Dream. Or you could take the Meta-Nav, but that's how most of the people who *don't* have a Meta-Nav got in, I bet; anyone with a Persona can feel something's different near a Palace, but you need a route to get in and to know where you're going - the name and form, again. Then the rumour provides a route that works." Maybe that answers Ren's implied question.

"But Tsubasa-kun's right. It's not just spreading rumours. Sometimes it's *not* spreading them... or spreading a different one. There were some competing ones about the Joker Killer, though I suppose none of that is exactly relevant anymore. It's also how nobody at Kasugayama knows exactly why I'm there. I couldn't stop them from figuring out I had a criminal record, but there's about five explanations for what it is, nobody can agree, so nobody knows." Hibari looks faintly smug, but: "I wish I'd been able to stop it entirely, but, well..." You can't do everything!

At least it's slightly less of a detriment than it would be if, say, Ren's got out. At Kasugayama, it gives Hibari a bit of mystique...

Ren provides a timeline, and Hibari has no problem with that. "Great!" she agrees. Everyone here, at least, is in accord. But she asks, then: "How do you do it? I know it involves fighting his Shadow; I've seen you fight the Palace Rulers and I figure it's the same idea, just a little smaller-scale. I also know you send a calling card ahead of time, and that you can't kill him." Well, they *could* but that wouldn't be the result Hibari wants. Honestly, Hibari thought the calling card was just showmanship, but Ren has brought it up as a step on this operation... "Do you just fight him until he can't resist, and then... do the Change of Heart?" She doesn't know how that works either.

She's missing a critical step, because Treasures are outside her field of knowledge. But she doesn't need to be told that to be told what *her* role in this adventure is; not yet. 

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.

"...Eh? The universe?" Ichika doesn't get it. "When'd we start talking about space stuff?"

But there it is; it's about distorted cognition, not necessarily action. Ichika frowns. "Bad thoughts aren't bad," she says. "...But we know he's acting on them. So that's different."

Ichika looks to Haru--and then to Tsubasa, and nods. "Right. Rumors are like... this active force, in Sumaru. If you don't pay attention, you'll get burned. But that doesn't mean you have to spread every awful thing that comes across your ears, either."

"Yeah. Information."

Pause. "...Mm. It's not that it's a problem," Ichika says. "We needed all the help we can get. Just gives me the shivers a little, is all."

"...Yeah. The right rumors, the wrong rumors..."

But how do they do it? Ichika's not gonna explain that one. Instead she says, "Sounds good," to Ren. "I'm there."

"You'll see," she says to Hibari instead. "Since we're bringing you and all." 

<Pose Tracker> Futaba Sakura has posed.

 
"Rumors..."

That seems to be the contribution from Futaba at this point. She has only recently taken her first step into a greater world. It is fortunate, at least, that there's a topic at hand, a target to focus on.

She does uncap her juice and drain it.

"So it's hard to know what the truth is at all in Sumaru?" she asks Ichika (and probably also Hibari) but it's a thoughtful, not very loud kind of question. 

<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.

    "No objections," Tsubasa says, succinctly, to their Thieving Boss. (As opposed to Ichika, who's the Thorn Boss, or the man downstairs, who's also the Boss. Look, this might all sound confusing, but approach it from Tsubasa's angle: there's dozen of Bosses to keep straight at Kasugayama. This all makes total sense and you've just gotta trust them on that one.)

    "Where are you lookin'? That's th' shit Sumaru's askin' ya... higher stakes'n Shujin." They don't stop to elaborate, right now, just why they know how to make the comparison. They nod, to Futaba. "Yeah. Truth changes, too. If someone's into it, it's hard to stop shit... can still confuse it with ten other takes, tho'," they add, inclining their head towards Hibari and her own explanation.

    (Sometimes they wonder -- would Haru even recognise them, between then and now? They weren't a 'they', back then, and as Hibari's detailed here, two different people can have the same surname...)

    "Learn by doin'," they suggest, of the Change of Heart. "Dunno I got words for it, anyway. How 'bout you?" they ask, looking to Morgana.

<Pose Tracker> Haru Okumura has posed.

Haru nods thoughtfully when Tsubasa explains that being a rumourmonger doesn't necessarily entail spreading rumours. They can also protect people from dangerous ones! "I see... thank you for explaining. I can't fault you for using those abilities to protect yourself."

"Though I have to admit, it's difficult for me to wrap my head around Sumaru being like... that." She says to Ichika, who explains the power rumour holds over reality. Even if she is attuned to the supernatural, she's still a sheltered girl. She glances over when Futaba has a similar question to her - but is bold enough to voice it. She's curious to know the answer to that herself.

(It's hard to say, with how isolated Haru's always been from the other students at Shujin. One thing's for certain, though... Haru is glad to have met the Tsubasa Seki that she knows now.)

"Sounds like a plan!" Haru exclaims, as Joker lays out their schedule for stealing Kenzo Aoki's heart. "Don't worry, Hibari-chan! We'll show you the ropes."

Retrieved from "https://www.velvetroom.wiki/index.php?title=2026-07-07:_No_Relation&oldid=5233"