2025-10-14: Paranoia Agents
- Log: Paranoia Agents
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Umie Akabane
- Where: Hirasaka Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: October 15, 2025
- IC Date: July 26, 2012
- Summary: After becoming involved in Tsubasa's case due to the attack at Aoba Park, Umie finally comes across them, but if there's one thing the two have in common, it's an overwhelming, unrelenting paranoia of something being out to get them, which nearly throws the two at odds with each other.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Behold: someone's carrying a sizable box down the street, with a backpack across their shoulders and a dog (carrying NOTHING, what a LAZY TOSA INU) ambling along beside them. Should Tsubasa be doing this while they still have those dressings visible on their arms and legs where their burns are healing? Listen, it's fine, they can handle it.
(Their fake tan is so deep to be almost orange, and there are textured, lighter parts to their right side which aren't entirely covered up with concealer, but the massive burns they're obscuring happened much longer than two weeks ago. That's also why their hair is stark neon blue, right now.)
They do kind of dump it down on some random guy's brick fence, though, to take a minute to breathe, shrugging off their backpack and letting that thunk down to the ground just the same. Why don't they at least get the bus down there? Because of the dog, stupid. They don't let dogs on the bus!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Such an injustice in the world, not allowing doggos onto buses. That's man's best friend!
And Umie knows for a fact that Lance is a good dog, from Umie's visits to the Cardboard Dragon!
It's also due to Lance that Umie gives the large box being carried down the street a second glance, carried by someone who is covered in dressings on their arms and legs.
When the box is dumped on a brick fence, the identity of the person is revealed, being--
"Neon-san!" Wait, no-- "S-seki-san, I mean!" Someone's on the other side of street, it sounds like.
A short blonde young woman comes jogging up, wearing a baseball cap and glasses. Black thumbsleeves cover her hands and 3/4s of her lower arms, completely throwing off the pastels of the pink tank top, white windbreaker tied around her waist, and bleached denim shorts.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, her hands on her knees as she bends over, Umie tosses her ponytail over her shoulder as she straightens back up. "I've been looking for you! For..." Breath. "Stuff that's already h..." Breath. "..appened." While jaywalking would be in the list of acceptable crimes Umie would consider, but with the heavy trucks moving through, Umie opted to cross at the crosswalk instead, trying to catch up with a faster pace.
This would make the third 'disguise' Tsubasa could have possibly seen Umie in recently, counting the one she wore at the park... which, well, Tsubasa was a little busy, so let's make that *two*. The first may have been a proper disguise (the mask), but the utterance of 'Neon-san' had dispelled it.
"..... Give me that box," she says instead, rather bluntly, motioning with her hands. "You got you hands full already with Lance-chan. Where are you headed?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Eh? The other side of the street?
Tsubasa looks that way, sharply, brow knitting for a moment before they place -- "Oh, yeah, you." That konbini chick with the secret magic powers! Tsubasa doesn't say that part. That would be rude. Instead: "Uh... you're... Akahane-san, right...?"
(Technically, that is a way to pronounce the kanji that was on her namebadge.)
Tsubasa is taller than her! They're an entire five foot five, which either makes them tall for a woman or short for a man. So they kind of get to look down as Umie folds over onto her knees, panting.
"Uh." They say, again, eloquently. "Nah. Ain't givin' you shit right now. Shit's heavy, you're puffed." They just keep sitting on that brick fence, as if it's some kind of bench.
"Anyway, jus' movin' some shit over to my new place. No big deal, it can wait a few. What's been eatin' ya?"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Akabane-san," Umie corrects, between breaths. Hey, usually it's her first name being assumed to be something like 'ocean-something' when it's written out in kanji, so this, she can certainly handle.
"And you're..." She points to Tsubasa, each breath becoming more and more stabilized as the moments tick by. "Tsubasa Seki-san." Not Neon-san.
Thankfully, Tsubasa has the sense to not just hand over a heavy box to someone who looks like she'd fall over, at this point. "Well, yeah. Because I had to catch up." She whips off her clear plastic glasses, closing them and stuffing them in her purse.
What's been eating Tsubasa?
"You were--" If Umie hadn't run over here, and if she had time to think, she'd be better able to compose her question. "... You--" She sighs.
Maybe it'd be best not to remind the person healing from burns of the reason _they have them_. "How are you healing?"
_that is not a question to run over here for_
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Uh... yeah," Tsubasa says, looking a touch weirded-out that the konbini chick has their full name like that when she just caught them nicking some shit. Is that really so notable that she'd remember it so vividly...? This is profiling, man!!
(Tsubasa, she probably remembers you because you kept showing up in strange situations after that.)
"Were you... followin' me?" Tsubasa asks, hearing that she had to catch up, escalatingly more freaked out as they wonder just why someone would do that.
And they're eating her, which, luckily, Tsubasa is too busy being nervous about to interpret as anything but vaguely threatening. They put a hand on the brickwork, standing in a way they think is subtle. "Uh, fine..." Tsubasa says, glancing past Umie to try and find if she'd brought a whole crew with her. A lot of this doesn't add up... but they can tell when a situation is fishy.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
In truth, Umie didn't, but calling someone 'Neon-san' after they got arrested for something you technically could have resolved yourself felt, demeaning.
Especially when Tsubasa kept showing up in weird situations afterward.
"... If I was," Umie says, breathing out a sigh, her shoulders sagging, "I wouldn't have been running."
Nothing seems to be behind Umie; at least, nothing that's associated with her. "I was there," she finally says, beginning to sense the tension in Tsubasa's body posture. "At Aoba Park. That same guy attacked me, weeks earlier, which was covered up, as well. Whether it was for the same reasons, I can't say. But you're..." Her shoulders still sag in that defeated posture. "I was going to warn you earlier about what might happen, but by the time I got out of the hospital it was too late."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Rrright..." Tsubasa says, trying to evaluate the risk of someone actively following them versus remembering their face to jump them when they come across them.
But they can't see anyone closing in, and Umie insists the Joker Killer attacked her, too. "Uh... not 'less my parents want you dead too," they point out, a touch haplessly.
Still... she looks like she just got her ass beat, so... maybe she's just, like, really bad at first impressions? (Well, second, technically. Or are they up to third? Look, they're TRYING to benefit the doubt here --) "R..ight..."
Tsubasa sighs, folding their arms. Okay. This isn't working. "Sit down," they instruct her, with a look to the low brick wall to inform her just where a seat is. "Back up. Take a breath. What's your name? What did you think was gonna happen, and why did you think that?" Short sentences, short instructions, because they're pretty sure her mind is short-circuiting every time she tries to process anything right about now.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'Uh... not 'less my parents want you dead too.' Umie stares at Tsubasa for a moment and lets out a sigh, pressing her fingers to her temples. "If it worked that way," she begins, one warm brown eye glancing up towards Tsubasa, the other obscured by her hand, "there'd be fewer victims." Her tone, at least, is held back.
Then again, if Tsubasa was hiding, where would they be even able to find out more information?
And how does she say this without further tying Tsubasa in the world of the supernatural?
What's her name? Ah, Umie, you did it again.
Ah well, she's got her breath back, and she'll regain control of this conversation yet.
"My name?" She waves a hand, as if to dismiss the importance of it with a smirk. "What, you don't memorize random nosy kombini clerks' names?" she jokes. "Umie Akabane. Frequent visitor to the Cardboard Dragon, shift worker, and a person that has a personal grudge with the man who attacked you. As for you..." She tilts her head towards Tsubasa.
Wait. Aha. Maybe she *doesn't* have to completely avoid any supernatural concepts. "I have been trying to snag you for a while now. First, it was for the rumors you spread about a friend of mine, then, about the night you were nabbed by police for the innocent act of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and now..." Her confidence fails, as she remembers that night.
"A day that, if Suou-kun and I had succeeded in stopping the Old Maid beforehand, wouldn't have happened in the first place." She takes off her hat now, pulling the ponytail through the back. "I'll get to your questions, but I think it's better if I explain that part first."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Look, you just got multiple people callin' the Joker Killer up to fuck someone up," Tsubasa tries to explain. "Ain't nothin' connectin' me, the Death Boss, some housewife's husband an' you."
They do not unfold their arms, even as Umie tries to make a joke about it. "Aight," they nod, curt.
And then: "You're pussyfootin' around it. You're talkin' 'bout how I was the only asshole what couldn't slip out through that extra hour back then, an' how the Joker Killer brought Hell onto earth to get me dead. Look." Their fingers drum, against their arm. "I know 'bout that Persona power you people have, all right? Suou-san told me what was goin' on," they explain, "an' I figured out more since then. Turns out gettin' almost killed by the Joker Killer twice makes you into someone who can cope with shit that can crush you like a gnat."
It's a bit of misdirection, on their part; you people clearly still positions them as standing apart from Persona-Users, despite them apparently having the exposure to handle being read in. And being fair, there are some humans who are like that... though Umie may most likely have met them in the NWO.
"Anyway. You ain't did shit," Tsubasa says, clicking their tongue to their teeth. "So don't give me this 'if only we'd succeeded this would never have happened' shit. If you'd succeeded, my mom woulda just had to find some other way to make peace with my father. Get it? All the Joker Killer was was a method. Dude's equivalent to a gun. Ain't do shit 'til someone got their finger on the trigger."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Then you should know that it's not about who calls him," Umie calmly states back. "And you should be looking at why, in every case, there's been no mention in the news. There's always someone or something being blamed, and in this case," she begins, deciding to swoop into her main point, "you were the scapegoat. An easy one, given the Old Maid stated your business in front of many witnesses, and your recent previous incident with the police. You're being made a victim of a cover-up." ... For reasons Umie can't state, unfortunately. "Just like 'Hirasaka gangs' were used for when he attacked Kasugayama High, and god, what was the one they used for Sevens?"
Tsubasa never mentioned 'where' the housewife's attack happened, and judging by that sly smile on Umie's face, the mention of the location is intentional.
"Can you blame me if I am?" Umie slips into a more caustic mode, abandoning the more vague tactics she deployed earlier, except... here. "But I wouldn't call you an asshole," she continues. Joke or not, she has to make a comment on it. "A person, striding into a situation like that because they saw someone in trouble? Against a fine example of 'corrupt policeman' if there ever was one?" She raises a dark violet fingernail. "Many people would've turned their heads and pretended they never saw it."
No, Umie can't let it remain a joke.
"You mean he showed his Persona to you." The wry smile widens on Umie's face. "Well, it makes things easier for me. Unfortunately, a Persona doesn't help people in spaces like these," she motions to the area around them, also notably never confirming she has one as well. "A bullet from a gun will end a person here, no matter what they're able to summon elsewhere. And political nonsense? Even moreso."
'All the Joker Killer was was a method.' "A knife in a drawer is easier to grab than a knife in a locked cabinet." Umie leans her head on one upturned palm. "That's the power of it; giving people a way out without having to _own up_ to it. And then the police gently sweep it under the rug, and the public is nonethewiser, because, after all, _'who would believe you'_?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"It's all about who calls him," Tsubasa shoots back. "Don't give me shit 'bout how people don't have to own up to their murders right after sayin' the caller don't matter. Anyway, you think I don't know it's a fuckin' coverup? Quit bein' such a smug prick."
Oh. They're not taking it well.
But it wasn't a joke, as it happens, which might be where some of this ineffective communication is coming from that's just the way they talk. Tsubasa, though, isn't of the mood to talk about why they wanted to help Myunghon back then.
(Whether Tsubasa knows about Umie's power of Persona, of course, depends entirely on whether she was in disguise or not during that attack on Aoba. They could certainly see clearly when they were the Phoenix, at least.)
They spit, off to the side. "What I'm wonderin' is," they growl, all suspicion, "what's your connection with 'them'. Go on -- if you got all these answers -- who you barkin' for?" Tsubasa's blue eyes narrow. 'Political nonsense'; they caught that. "Matsushita? Or maybe Kuramoto? Gotta be someone big..."
Those are names from the Diet, as it happens -- though that's the only clue Tsubasa offers verbally that they're worried about her invocation of politics.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"... That was in response to what you said earlier," Umie murmurs, her gaze solemn. "That the other attacks couldn't happen unless it was connected to your parents. Outside of that, it *does* matter. But the Old Maid isnt just a knife. And that, in turn, reflects back on the caller."
'Quit bein' such a smug prick.' You were the one that denied that my own attack happened, Umie thinks. Still, she can't act like saying the wrong thing won't carry consequences, and Tsubasa themselves has just gone through an even more traumatic event.
Thankfully, whether Tsubasa had reasons or not to intervene in Myunghon's attack, it doesn't color Umie's opinion either way.
'Why not just say what you mean? Why are you holding back? They can take it~' No. Thats not why she's here.
Who is she barking for? "Myself," Umie says, firmly, though the source of that is not Tsubasa, but the yellow-tinted voice speaking to her in her mind. "Assuming by 'them' you mean the police." Or--
Tsubasa caught that. Umie grins, seeming pleased. "Still myself."
As for who?
"That part won't matter," Umie says. "Theyre all the same, in the end. What matters is survival. Whether you feel I'm a jerk or not, I want to help you.
A pause.
"You piss them off. I'll lose my arms to a heavy box over that."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"I weren't sayin' they couldn't happen," Tsubasa spits back, "jus' that you can't have been attacked for the same reasons I was 'cuz the reason I was is MY FATHER WANTS ME DEAD, ASSHOLE!"
Oh. They're REALLY not taking it well.
"It fuckin' matters! You think you can just march up to me and declare yourself my best fuckin' friend when I don't know you?! Fuck off! I don't trust you and I don't like the way you smile like a smug prick!" The first thing they think, hearing this woman keeping tabs on them apparently since their inconsequential meeting...
She's NWO. Tsubasa's sure of that.
"You just want to use me, ain't that right?!" They snap, taking a step back. "You one of my father's rivals or somethin'?! Ain't no difference 'tween you knowin' who I am an' that fuck Sergeant Ezoe! I ain't stupid! And I'm gonna tell Yeo-sama just who you are, you fuckin' skulk!"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
'I weren't sayin' they couldn't happen,...' Umie's eyes widen. "... Wait-- you.... werent?"
Red brown eyes stare at Tsubasa for a moment, and Umie presses a hand to her face. ".... Shit..."
But it doesn't end it there.
'You think you can just march up to me and declare yourself my best fuckin' friend when I don't know you?!'
'Making friends, aren't we~?'
"Wait--" Umie's face pales. She raises her hands up. "No no no, wait- That's not what I was after!" And smiling. "I was--?"
'Smiling the entire time, Umie-chan. You were *so* pleased with yourself, too~ You have such a lovely smile.'
No wonder Mai-chan was quiet. She was waiting for Umie to tighten her own noose, knowing that she naturally *would*, in her hubris. "... use.... you...?" The smug expression is slapped out of Umie's face entirely, as Tsubasa continues on. "Wait, I thought it was your mom-- hold on, who is Ezoe?!"
'How devious~ Merry-san will finally find out what sort of person you really are, if you don't do something, Umie-chan~ How about you tell Seki-san a sweet little lie to get back in their good graces?'
"_No,_" Umie breathes, her eyes widening like she's seen a ghost, or just run that length of sidewalk to catch up with Tsubasa again.
'It all goes back to that alleyway, doesn't it? The night you were too much of a coward to help someone in need? You could murder an innocent man, but a piece of shit that hurt Yeo-san is just a step too far, isn't it?'
'What a cute little coward you are, Umie-chan~ How about you tell them the real reason?'
coward
"...." WIth a quiet, subdued expression, Umie looks down. "Because I could've done something about that night, but I was too much of a chicken-shit to do it. Merry-san, Aragaki-kun, you... I know what happens to coffins when they're destroyed. Or worse, when you open them. Instead... I stood in front of it, while everyone looked at me."
She slips her hands in her pockets.
"Honestly, if you dragged me into that alleyway and punched the hell out of me, I'd be okay with it. Hell, tell Merry-san what I just said. Let them know what kind of coward I am. Right now... That's all I can offer," she murmurs, hoarsely.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Fuck you take me for, thinkin' I'm gonna say you ain't got cooked?!" Tsubasa, at least, is too angry to realise what Umie might be realising.
(Fear can look much like anger, boiled properly.)
"Fuck!" Tsubasa exclaims, when Umie asks who Ezoe even is. "They ain't told you 'bout him -- ugh, I'm so fuckin' stupid! Talkin' to random stalkers runnin' up to me in the street... stupid!" Tsubasa, tragically, can't run when their stuff is here -- though Lance has run off by now, hearing all the conflict. (She's trained to go home when a fight starts, because that kind of yelling does generally precede an asskicking, in Tsubasa's neck of the woods. ... Tsubasa's going to have to spend time training her in her routes to her new home, huh.)
Tsubasa doesn't start a fight, though. (They don't think they'd win. Ask them, and they'd say they're on the back foot.) And so, stuck here until they can figure out how to grab their shit and go without getting stabbed in the back, they instead get to listen about what's really eating Umie.
"Tch..." Tsubasa takes a long sigh, burying their face in their hand. "Would you listen to yourself? You sayin', 'I'm a coward 'cuz I didn't kill that guy in cold blood when he didn't even know he oughta fight back'. Quit takin' credit for shit that obviously ain't in ya wheelhouse," and Tsubasa at least certainly thinks Umie isn't a killer, "... like, what kinda freak beats themself up 'cuz they ain't killed a guy? Fuck, man," Tsubasa exclaims, though they're at least not shouting any more, their heat replaced with weariness as their hand slides down their face, "that's shit I do, and I'm a violent piece of shit. An' I'll tell ya what, one guy what I thought I oughta bury, the person what matters there woulda hated it 'cuz I was takin' the glory. Other guy..."
Tsubasa grunts, shrugging a shoulder. "Jury's out. Least that's my kill this time, but I ain't wanna be like my fuckin' father. So I jus' live with knowin' he's a piece of shit an' mom had to try'n kill me like that. Might be I'm a coward... it's still my choice to make."
Their lips tug back, into a sneer. "Big Sis were with you, back then," 'ane-san', they call her, which is how one refers to a woman in a gang. "Shimizu-san. She's legit. So you gon' tell me, while you were standin' in fronta that coffin... why ain't she opened it up? If it's so fuckin' obvious, if it ain't coward shit, why ain't she killed him like that?"
Tsubasa breathes out. "Like, shit, dude... you gon' tell me next how you oughta killed the Joker Killer when he showed up to kill you so he wouldna got th' chance to fry me, ain't ya? Man, when I got told 'bout this shit, I wondered why more fuckers weren't goin' 'round killin' people for free... but that's 'cuz I'm a paranoid piece of shit, y'know? Normal people don't kill people to solve their problems, dude."
They don't know why they're trying to reason with this woman's guilt complex when they're pretty sure she's come here to destroy them. Maybe they just... hate seeing people roll over and show their bellies like that.
When they come armed for a fight, they feel like a real prick when the other guy doesn't fight back.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
How many times has Umie yelled out at someone like Sudou, cussed at them, or made witty remarks when she was scared shitless?
"Good thing for you, I'm not a stalker." Umie shakes her head. It'd definitely be a bad idea to state how "I might've made a few connections along the way, but a lot of it was in the service of finding leads on the Old Maid." As well as the depth of the mystery behind him, and what she overheard him saying, that day. "Oh, uh... your dog..." She rubs the back of her head, blonde bangs hanging from her face. "Sorry if I scared her."
'You sayin'...' "I'm saying that a guy like that comes with connections that would be foolish *not* to consider," Umie says, though the potential bite in her words is subdued. "He turned his gun on another cop, one I *know* for a fact is someone who tries to embody what we expect out of law enforcement." Umie sighs, lifting a foot to rest on the wall, with the other left dangling, as she places one hand over her knee. Of course, Mai-chan goes silent, fluttering away like a passive-aggressive butterfly. "... Men like him... are a dime a dozen, though. Kill one, and two will take his place. All you're left with is the weight of that act, and less of a barrier towards doing it again."
But on the other hand... the black butterfly of cause and effect doesn't care about good intentions.
Umie doesn't ask for names here, as Tsubasa reveals someone they're looking at. She does widen her eyes at Shinobu's name. "It's a fate worse than death," she 'supposes', aloud. "Plus, what I said earlier. Some people aren't worth staining your soul over. Better they rot someplace. But if it's a matter of self-defense? You do what you have to."
'... you gon' tell me next how you oughta killed the Joker Killer when he showed up to kill you so he wouldna got th' chance to fry me, ain't ya?' "Grk--" No, thankfully, that wasn't what Umie was going to say, but the analogy works like a charm, hitting Umie like a perfect headshot. "I mean, I was *trying* that day in Aoba Park, but the piece of shit gave me a concussion over it. He's not normal," she says, dryly. "Not even me and Takkun doing a pincer maneuver worked! A Persona can't protect you from *that*, and after that, the police came into my hospital room and basically went 'oh, poor Umie, you hit your head, you totally didn't see a man with a paper bag on his head'. As if I'd forget the man I tried to strangle?!"
Okay, now Umie's getting angry, but this time, it's just the ornery type, directed out at poor Sudou, wherever he may be.
Balancing her chin on her arm now, Umie frowns. "Maybe it's because I'm just as paranoid as you are? I just mask it differently. I don't do things because I want to be friends; I do it because I want to fight back. It's just that I'm the sort that works in the shadows. I know my strengths, and it's not being on the front lines. I build connections and I carry information around. Information works no matter were you are."
It didn't stop her from offering to carry a heavy box, though.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"You know my name, where I hang out, and all this shit 'bout what happened to me, how ain't you a stalker?" Tsubasa shoots back, though they sound a little less sure of themself. (Because, you see, she's concerned about their dog.) "Tch... don't worry 'bout it," Tsubasa adds, a moment later. "She's trained to get out whenever a fight's brewin'. I don't got no fightin' dog, man."
(They have to specify, because tosa inu are, traditionally, the fighting dogs of Japan.)
"... whatever," Tsubasa folds their arms again. "You wanna stand there insistin' you're a bad person for not killin' a man, that's your business. But just 'cuz it ain't explainable in the real world, that don't mean they ain't existed, innit? How you reckon it comes down on me an' Aragaki-san, nevermind Yeo-sama, if you kill a guy while we don't know shit? Dunno if he just drops dead or disappears... either way, Sergeant Ezoe rocks up, an' his man's dead or gone." Tsubasa glares back at Umie, with a brief pause for emphasis, before they conclude: "An' we're up."
If there's no explanation, they'll just blame the nearest scapegoat. They've proved they're willing to do that.
(... Tsubasa doesn't realise how many targets are on their back.)
"Ain't self-defence if they can't fight back," they add, terse. "That's murder. Don't dress it up."
Tsubasa looks away, still scowling. "Don't need to tell me, dude, that already happened to me." A moment later, they relent enough to explain: "Hit my head last time I met the Joker Killer. Had my psych come in and tell me I was nuts again. Whatever."
'Their' psych? 'Again'?
"... so you do wanna use me," they conclude, tone sharp. "Cool. S'long's we know where we stand. Guess I believe you ain't with the Order, tho'," and they just say it, out loud, just like that! "Makes sense you're sneakin' around behind their backs."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Those I can answer, for future reference," Umie says, holding up a hand and counting down the reasons. "I know your name because people told me, I'm a part of Merry-san's group, I was already investigating Kasugayama High from earlier... I suppose the most obvious part was when I came across two friends of yours who were people I happened to want to talk to for more than one reason."
"... Really, it's a matter of... er." Right, Umie *shouldn't* be making Tsubasa more suspicious than she already has.
However, she's distracted by doggie. "... Huh. She's a real sweetheart. I'm glad Merry-san was able to help her out."
"Look, it's--" Wait, *why is she arguing about this*?! Is it because she's tortured herself so much underneath this banner that no one asked to to put up?
Or maybe--
"... I didn't say it was a great plan," she finally admits. "Just... look, there were people there that night that didn't know, and I was half afraid someone *would* try something, and when I did--"
Wait, what *did* everyone's faces look like? Umie could have sworn they were judging her, and calling her a coward. But--
_That doesn't sound like something any of them would do._
.... So much so that she discounted it, and didn't even *examine* it.
Umie massages her temples, keeping silent as Tsubasa explains further.
'Ain't self-defence if they can't fight back.' Umie sighs. "Right." She'll agree, because it's the better answer; people do notice when someone goes missing, after all.
Their 'psych'? 'Again'?
No, Umie, Tsubasa's paranoid enough as it is, _stop touching the hot stove_.
"If you want to call it that, then sure," she concludes. "If it means you survive, and stay out of their hands. The police are--" And then, Tsubasa *says it*. "Don't say it out loud," Umie hisses, as she looks around. AT least Tsubasa seems to know, but then again--
".... just..." She grimaces. "Tell you what: if you need someone to be sneaky, or you need a hand, I'll give you my contact info. I have a Persona," she'll just come out and say it here, "and I can probably snag someone like Tak--" oh no, she's used his nickname at least *once*. "... Suou-san." She massages her temples. "I can't deflect bullets, but there's things I can do that might be useful."
She looks up. "But, that's up to you. You already have a number of people willing to go to bat for you; that much I was able to figure out when gathering information." She gets off from the wall.
"... If anything else, know that you're not the only one who's scared shitless of them." She smirks. "I just got tired of keeping my head down."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
<poem>
A likely story!! Except it actually is a likely story, even if it takes Tsubasa a second to get from discounting it to reconsidering it.
"They really helped me out," is what Tsubasa says of Myunghon, instead, having figured from context clues that they must go by Merry somewhere.
Still -- 'when I did', in the context of someone trying to open a coffin because they didn't know what would happen --
Tsubasa caught that, too.
And something about it softens them, a little, even if it sounds an awful lot like she's already accidentally killed a guy once. ... like, that's fucked up, but it's relatable, right? Shit, Tsubasa biting off more than they can chew and feeling like a prick in hindsight is just a day ending in Y.
"Uh... sure," they say, taken aback by the immediate way Umie reflects to even hearing the word 'Order'. They wonder, a touch nervously: it's seriously so big that you can't even mention it?!
... wait, does that mean she thinks those guys in the Diet are part of this Order thing too?
... well, Tsubasa doesn't know about the Diet, but they must have been somewhere in City Hall...
"..." Tsubasa regards her stonily, for a moment, before they take out their phone. "... sure. Gimme ya number." Maybe she is just using them, but like -- turnabout is fair play, right?
Once they tuck their phone back into their pocket, though, they rub at their arm. "I ain't scared," they insist, but they can't meet her eyes as they say it. "They can come fight me if they wanna go. I'll take 'em. But you..."
They look back to Umie, with an assessing expression. "... I dunno if I trust you yet," they conclude, which is at least better than the screaming rage they had a little while ago. "'Least... not enough to know where I'm gonna sleep. So, like... don't follow me, or I'll take you down, too."
They hike their backpack back on, and grab their box.
"Anyway. Later, Akabane-san."
Tsubasa heads off... and at the very least, watching them go, they seem capable of carrying that weight.
(Both figuratively and literally.)