2026-01-20: One for All, All for One
- Log: One for All, All for One
- Cast: Hyousuke Suzuki, Ichika Kawase, Tsubasa Seki
- Where: Kasugayama High School
- OOC Date: 2026-01-20
- IC Date: Wed Sep 12
- Summary: Suspecting that the Joker Killer is planning another attack, Hyousuke meets with Ichika and Tsubasa to warn them. However, his plan of action betrays his recklessness, and lays bare feelings he'd hoped to keep buried.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Once classes let out, most schools would have their students file out to after-school clubs...
... and surely, some still do, in Kasugayama. There must be a couple of clubs which manage to claw out an existence with the little support they're given.
Just, you know.
There's an awful lot of teenagers who don't do anything official after school.
That doesn't mean they do nothing, though. For instance, take Tsubasa and Ichika, who, on hearing their friend wanted to talk, headed up to the roof -- kicked out a couple who thought it was a safe place to make out -- and staked out their position up here to wait for him. It's at least a pleasant day out; the sun's shining, but the heat isn't quite as oppressive now they're moving into Autumn.
Tsubasa's wearing the boy's uniform, their shirt unbuttoned at the midsection and tied around their waist in delinquent style. (It reveals a black and blue binder, worn beneath.) Their hair's cyan, magenta, and yellow, and don't worry: they get shit for having such a colourful wig by the faculty, just as surely as they get shit for wearing the 'wrong' uniform. ... luckily, thanks to Julian assuring them that he's handling their uniform crimes through counselling, they get detention for 'crossdressing' less, these days.
... that hardly means it's stopped, though. Sometimes a new teacher rotates in and doesn't read much of their file; sometimes an established teacher's having a bad day. Still... it's an improvement.
Even if the reason for that improvement is largely faculty embracing doing less work.
They're free today, though, and that's what matters!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
The roof is a terrible place to make out unless you're into being interrupted. Ichika could tell them that--but somehow, she figures they don't want to listen to the Boss getting rid of them for the moment. It contributes to the smirk she waears for a few moments, though.
Ichika's dressed in uniform, too--midriff bared, skirt down to her ankles, black tie a little loose. She occasionally gets shit for her own uniform, but not nearly as often as Tsubasa.
No detention today, though.
Freedom!
Ichika takes up a spot and waits.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
The fight had not - in the physical sense, at least - harmed Hyousuke much. There was some reddened skin from where he had been burnt, and some singed hair nearer the back of his head that he'd not spied in the mirror, but he otherwise seemed to be in relatively decent shape. However, that did not mean that he was doing well. Anyone that knew him even remotely well would have been able to tell that he was on edge - that there was something playing on his mind that he refused to share with anyone. Tapping fingers, tensing muscles, darting eyes, all of them and more pointed to someone that was holding something in, and the tense look on his face did not speak to it being something pleasant.
Ichika and Tsubasa, however, he did intend to tell. As soon as he'd had the chance to, he'd messaged both of them that he had something he needed to share, and that it was urgent. If the tone of the text he'd sent had not gotten the message through, however, the way he all but stormed through the door to the roof likely would have. He only stopped to close it and make sure that nobody was listening, before striding up towards Ichika and Tsubasa. His expression was the same as it had been all day - tense and tight-jawed.
His uniform was in much the same state as it always was - clean, but crumpled. Bereft of any statements to make about the uniform aside from his distaste for formal clothing and top buttons, he'd left the two nearest the collar undone, but had otherwise just let it be. He gave Tsubasa and Ichika little time to take in the sight - there was no time to stand on ceremony, and he had little inclination to do so. The very second he was sure they were both in earshot, and nobody was listening in on them, Hyousuke flatly stated what he'd been holding back since that night before.
"I think the Joker Killer's planning another attack."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa's leaning on a pot-plant with a beaten up fake fern, arms folded. They look a little bruised up, too -- notably, there's a bruise on their forehead -- but they wear it all just fine.
"Roof's clear," they assure him, and don't bother to get into how funny it was when those two realised they totally weren't getting any private time up here.
They figure he'd wanna know that, first, before anything like 'hello'. Neither Hyousuke nor Tsubasa are much for pleasantries. And so --
"Tch... already?" Tsubasa scowls, fingers drumming on their arm. "He attacked Maria Sakurai, right at th' end a holidays... Sevens girl," they issue, in way of explanation. Drum, drum. "... that mean you fight him again?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika's agaisnt a wall. It's fine! She looks fine--she's not bruised up, hasn't been in a fight lately... though she was sure near one. It was pretty hilarious, up here--but not so much, back then. So, he goes right into it, and...
Ichika, arms crossed, looks sharply to Hyousuke. "What makes you say that?" she wonders.
"Same question," she agrees with Tsubasa. "Big problem..."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke's lips twitched towards at the information Tsubasa provided. He didn't know much about Sevens, let alone Maria, but that didn't stop him from openly displaying disgust at the man's actions. He shook his head shortly after, however, dismissing the idea that he'd fought the killer himself.
"Fucker was too chickenshit to show up himself." He took a moment to collect his thoughts, silently organising them in his head as his expression returned to something resembling consternation more than outright disdain. He looked between them, arms crossed tight over his chest as he tried his best to explain what'd happened the night before.
"I was at Tartarus last night." He decided to leave out the part where he'd wandered into unfamiliar territory alone, without even having the courtesy to tell Ririka or her friends that he was on their turf. "And I felt like something was just... I dunno, it was just *wrong.* Like something was tying my gut into a knot. Same way the last time that asshole showed up, or at the warehouse, when the..." His grip tightened on his sleeves, and pallor set into his knuckles for a blink. He loosened it before long, however, and continued, glossing over the details of what had happened the night he'd ventured out with Tsubasa.
"I followed it, because I wanted to put that shitrag in the ground, but... But he wasn't even *there.* It was just a painting of him, and some squid-looking shadow." Hyousuke spoke with a staccato rhythm, with every few words requiring that he try to figure out how to put a voice to his thoughts. The fact that he had to do so made him visibly frustrated, even if only slightly. "It had some artist trapped in a dome on it, and he kept talking about some art show or something, even when me and everyone else there freed him."
There was a lot he skipped over, and a lot that - if pressed - he would have to fill them in on. But he needed to get to the important part - and that was what the phone was for. He pulled it out and turned it around, showing Ichika and Tsubasa a forum post stating that a piece by Dimitri Tachovsky would be displayed in Iwatadoi - without the artist in attendance.
"This was the guy that was trapped on that Shadow. *He'd* painted the picture of the Joker Killer that had that fucking *feeling* about it, and he started panicking about it when we got him out of there. I... I don't know what's gonna happen there. But this *can't* be a fucking coincidence. That fucker's planning something, I know it...!"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
It sure is a big problem, and Tsubasa's pretty sure they're thinking the same thing Ichika is: worrying about Hyousuke, too.
Still... Tartarus. "... yeah. With that other guy what could do it," they fill in, for Hyousuke. "When he took a normal-ass warehouse and turned it into a fuckin' magic fest." They don't know about the Mark and its Activation -- but they can describe the shape of it.
And Hyousuke followed it... Tsubasa nods, and scowls.
A painting. An art show. "Maybe... th' artist were like those two, too?" They guess, still scowling.
They remember the last time the Joker Killer attacked an art show, of course.
... ugh.
They straighten up so they can lean forward and examine Hyousuke's little phone screen, blue eyes narrowing. (There's a slight subtle squint to their right side constantly, but it's pretty easy to overlook.) "Wait, like... the paintin'?" They sound sceptical about that. "You sure, Hyousuke-kun...?"
Tsubasa scowls, straightening back up. (And then slouching right back down, because, you know. Appearances. They gotta look cool.) "... yeah," they nod, grim. "Shit's goin' down."
They look to Ichika, then.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika thinks The Joker Killer is a lot of things--but she can't quite get to chickenshit. ...Even if it would be a lot more satisfyign if she could. But Hyousuke explains. "You went to the tower?" Ichika confirms.
Ichika totally notices the part where Hyousuke wandered into Tartarus, though.
"I've felt it," Ichika says of the wrongness. She remembers, too.
"A... painting, and a weird shadow." Ichika nods thoughtfully. She looks over the article, too. She doesnn't press Hyousuke on all his self-dangerment. Isntead...
"OK," she says. "Yeah. I dunno about all of what you saw, but I think you're right. Something's going down there, and we need to be ready for whatever fallout there is."
She looks down. "...Mm. I might have to talk to some people..."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke made no attempt to stop Tsubasa expounding upon the night at the warehouse, but he clearly did not care to listen too intently to it. A diverted gaze and twitching fingers all spoke of something gnawing at his mind whenever the subject was brought up, but there were more pressing matters to attend to - and that assumed that he even wanted to talk about it in the first place. When it came to their reactions to his recklessness, however, he either did not notice or did not care to give a reaction. Perhaps he'd simply been too focussed on the Joker Killer to think much of it, or perhaps he'd simply decided to ignore it entirely so as not to dwell on something uncomfortable. It was unclear, and he had no desire to explain.
"I'm sure it was the painting. There was this... ninja guy there." He didn't know Shiryuu's name, and the finer points of Japanese history were lost on him, but he supposed the descriptor painted a clear enough picture to get his point across. "Him and his friend cut that thing up, and it felt like he wasn't there any more. We still had to deal with the Shadow and the artist though..." He shook his head, and let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a quiet growl and a deep sigh.
"I don't know what I'm supposed to think about all this. I'm gonna make some calls too, try and warn some people about it in case they know what the fuck's happening, but I..." Dense as he was, even Hyousuke knew what he had in mind was something that was tantamount to suicide. He hesitated before he spoke, clenching his jaw as he braced himself for whatever reaction Ichika and Tsubasa had for him. It was visible too - he didn't even try to hide that he knew it was a foolish idea.
"...I'm going to the show."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa noticed, too, but Ichika specifically had to talk Tsubasa out of going and fighting the doom tower like ten times when they were staying in Iwatodai.
(They're still gonna go fight the doom tower someday.)
Tsubasa doesn't focus on Hyousuke's endangerment, at least -- though they do zero in on something he's saying. "Ninja guy?" They ask, their expression sharpening. "An' he got a friend? Who?" Never mind that there might be a lot of ninja guys in the Supernatural world -- they're one of them! -- they hear that and immediately think of the one ninja threatening to kidnap them.
Still... the painting was where that feeling was located. "Tch... what happens if th' Joker Killer shows up when all that's goin' on? So like, he's there, but paintins' what feel like him's also there... could be he'll be even more powerful if he got all that set up." Tsubasa has a few thoughts (more than a few thoughts) about what to think about all this, apparently.
But...
What matters is that Tsubasa insists, the minute Hyousuke says that: "I'm goin' with ya."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ninja guy. Ichika looks at Tsubasa immediately, zeroing in on the same thing. "He's got weird powers, if he's the one I'm thinking of," Ichika says. "But the painting... Never dealt with something like that, but I buy it."
"Could be," Ichika agrees with Tsubasa. "I couldn't tell you what to thik," she says, "But I figure maybe some Uchida-san might know something? She tends to know stuff."
Pause.
"OK," Ichika says. "I'll try to make sure you have backup, both of you."
"Preferably me."
You paged Ichika Kawase with 'You mind if I go ahead and have him suggest that Ichika and Tsubasa stay back for the reasons I paged you about earlier? Either to give you two an out, or just make it more ~dramatic~ because he's refusing help he might need.'
Ichika Kawase (Ichika) pages: Sure!
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke scowled a little at the mention of ninjas. It wasn't much - an expression of frustration, more than anything else - but enough to make his feelings on the matter obvious.
"I didn't get any names, and I didn't get their faces. I think they were close? They did this fusion... attack... thing... and cut the painting up. We were all too busy trying to get the Shadow to do introductions." The part where he introduced himself to a robot and one of Ririka's friends in the middle of a fight was left out. Who knew who was a tricky subject, and it was better not to dwell on it for the sake of expediency.
The scowl vanished when he heard them both saying that they'd back him up, however, but it was not replaced with something even close to relief. It was stony, it was stern, and it was unyielding - something to match the emphatic tone he took when he replied.
"No." He said, before looking Ichika and Tsubasa dead in the eyes to make certain that his refusal had been heard. "I don't want you near this when it happens." It took him a moment to realise that his idea wasn't obvious, and another to consider that they might not've thought he even *had* an idea beyond blunding into the Killer's path.
"This show's a trap. It's gotta be. Might not be meant for us, but this shit's got 'danger' written all over it. And if I'm right, and I *am* wandering right into it, I need people on the outside I can count on in case things get bad. I don't know what he's got planned, but we've gotta keep it contained." The plan was perhaps not the soundest, but it was *a* plan, and he'd thought through for more than a few seconds. Some might have found it strange that the one time he managed it, it was to keep his friends from blundering into a trap he seemed perfectly willing to spring himself.
He let out a long, low, breath, buying a moment to try and collect himself before concluding.
"I *am* gonna ask Uchida-san about this though. Like you said, she might know something. I can ask her to tell Ogre and Phoenix anything she knows too, if she doesn't know you're..." He gestured a little towards Ichika and Tsubasa, leaving the thought unspoken, instead just suggesting that he didn't know whose identities had been revealed to Tamaki. It seemed there was quite a lot he'd not been clued in on.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Tch... he's got friends, huh. Great." Tsubasa's fingers rap a little more sharply, against their arm, but they don't get into it.
And then -- "Fuck off with that." Tsubasa issues, flatly, when Hyousuke says that he doesn't want them nearby, and that might clue him in that he needs to explain.
He does explain, though, and Tsubasa's expression remains quite flat. "Nah," they say, still agitated. "If you know it's a trap, why are you fallin' for it. Better for you to stay outside, too, wait for shit to go down. Let that fuckin' Ryouhara or his man trip th' trap an' eat shit, do me a favour." No one said that ninja was Ryouhara, Tsubasa!! "Once shit happens -- go in from a position of strength. You'll save more people that way, 'stead a becomin' someone else to save. Don't mean you're leavin' 'em to their fate or nothin'... you jus' bein' smart about it."
Tsubasa... is actually pretty decent at thinking things through when they're not actively in a fight, huh? ... they can at least hope that their argument that Hyousuke will turn into another casualty if he blunders into things will land with him.
They're sure to add that final clarification for him, though, knowing his history.
"But yeah -- ask Uchida-san. She'll tell ya what I told ya," they add, but it's at a grumble, glaring off to the side for a moment. Speaking up, again, they look back to him: "She knows I'm, like, friends with Phoenix. That's th' cover story I use with most fuckers." And they got it from Ichika!!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika doesn't love that guy having friends. "Fair enough," Ichika says when he says he didnn't get their names. It's not like it was a social call. But Hyousuke?
No. Ichika lifts an eyebrow at that, though she does't issue as resounding a statement as Tsubasa does in the moment.
"They're right, you know," Ichika says. "And there's not a chance you'll convince Tsubasa to leave you to 'danger' on your own."
They sure did get the cover from Ichika. Hmmm. Knowing something...
'Right. Tell Ogre," she agrees. "I'm willing to stay out and back you up later," Ichika says, "But not to let you go in alone. Fuck off with that."
But I'll keep an eye out, too."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"I said no."
Hyousuke's lips flickered out. It was only for a moment, and only some scant fraction of an inch, but it was there - accompanied by a snarl creeping into his voice, no less. He stepped forward, arms unfolding and fists curling until the knuckles went pale as bone. A fire lit in his eyes, and he drew up to his full height, exhaustion be damned. He wanted to make sure they heard him, and he wanted to make sure that his point was made. He let silence hang in the air, steeped with tension thick as fog, before continuing again.
"We don't know who's showing up. We don't know if *anyone's* showing up. We don't even know what he's trying to do there!" His tone might have been composed or restrained at one point, but with every word that spilled from his lips, it became clear that already-tenuous hold he'd had on his emotions had begun to slip even further. "And I am sick to fucking DEATH of standing back and letting people die because I WAS TOO FUCKING WEAK TO SAVE THEM!" His fingers dug deep into his palms, threatening to carve away the skin and leave bloody trails across his hands. His jaw clenched tight, teeth grinding each other to powder. And his eyes... they were wide, they were frenzied, and they were *desperate.*
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"You ain't th' boss a me."
Tsubasa steps forward, just as Hyousuke does; and their full height is a full eight inches shorter than his, but that's never stopped them from squaring their shoulders, folding their arms firmly, as if daring him to use that fist he's found for himself.
Their lips curl in a snarl, though they're silent, as he keeps yelling. They weather it, until he's done, teeth grit and jaw set.
Once he's done, their head tilts as it lifts up, a soft tch, plosive, as their tongue hits their teeth. "That where we at?"
Here, they shake their head, stepping back and to the side so they can spread their hands in a loose gesture. "... it's not just you, dude. I got nightmares, too. Guy took his head off with his fuckin' foot... you don't jus' come back from seein' that."
They scowl, as they look back to him, across their shoulder. "But if you think I'm gonna let you kill yourself 'cuz you got survivor's guilt, got another thing comin'. You don't get strong by blunderin' into traps. We ran headlong into that one, that night... I think 'bout what we coulda done if we assessed the sitch for five fuckin' seconds first. Yeah," they add, for emphasis, "I think 'bout that a lot."
A loose gesture, upwards, with a palm. "Maybe then. I don't fuckin' know."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Hyosusuke makes a demand, this time. Ichika's eyebrow goes up again. "Or me," she poitns out. "You can get mad all you want--you can have all the feelings you want--but..." Ichika lets it go, as Tsubasa speaks up isntead. What happened back there...
"Yeah. I'm sure you do. You think about it a lot. You think about a lot of thigns a lot."
Ichika pushes off the wall. "Whatever. You're not going to listen to me anyway. Just call me if you decide you do want help. I'll show up at the exhbition if I feel like it, one way or the other."
"...Tsubasa's right. Anyway, I'm out."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke was strong. He had to be strong. He had to be brave, and unshakeable, and confident, and powerful. He told himself that over and over again, silently repeating it to himself like a mantra, as if doing so would burn the words into his mind and show him to be nothing but. It was all in vain. Tsubasa had only needed to begin speaking to send Hyousuke trembling, and it would not stop. No matter how he tried to steady himself, or his breathing, or his stance, he was the very image of a cornered animal.
"No. You *don't* fucking know." It wasn't just Hyousuke's body that trembled. It was his voice as well. The titan that had once been there - the towering, indefatigable, monster of a man - faded with every word spoken. Yet, he could not stop himself from speaking. The floodgates had opened, and he spoke before he had a chance to stop himself, his feelings ripping themselves from his throat and exploding out into the air before his mind had a chance to so much as comprehend them. "It's not even about them! God fucking knows I could've saved them, and there's not a fucking day that I don't think about what else I could've done!"
Tears stung at his eyes. What little control Hyousuke could still exert over himself, he used to hold them back, but they burnt like magma, pooling beneath the surface, a hair's breadth away from bursting into the air. He jabbed a finger towards Tsubasa, not touching them, but spearing his finger in their direction while frantic eyes bored into their own.
"Every goddamn time I think about that night, I... I think about what it would've been like if... if it'd been you there." He turned to Ichika, his hand dropping to his side, hanging limply as his fingers twitched loose. "Or you. Or... Or any of the people I care about. And I... I can't stop thinking about how he... how he could've taken you from me, and I couldn't have done a goddamn thing about it. Fuck, the Joker Killer nearly fucking DID! And I couldn't do anything then either!"
It took all of his strength to keep from breaking down. The cracks ran through him, his willpower faded with every passing moment, and it was all he could do to simply stay coherent. But still, he clung to his strength. The only thing he had that was worth a damn.
"I can't... I can't lose you..." He stood there, shaking as he tried to compose himself enough to address Ichika before she left, but the words just would not form. All he could do was look between his friends, silently begging them not to go.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Fuck you!" Tsubasa yells, when Hyousuke insists they don't fucking know. "YOU THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE HURT BY SEEIN' HIM DIE, ASSHOLE?!"
If they were thinking straight, they might have joined Ichika in wanting to leave, but...
... they're much smarter about assessing a situation before they're in it.
They snap their hand forward; they grab Hyousuke's pointing hand, and grip it, tightly. Their nails -- with a nice cyan-and-white paint finish -- dig into his flesh, just like his did.
Bluff called. They are touching him.
They drop his hand as soon as their point's proven, though, folding their arms again. "Hey, asshole," they snap, and if their own eyes are damp, they're not calling any attention to it. "You wanna remind me who almost fuckin' drowned that night? Who was the sad sack a shit I had to haul out over me shoulder an' carry outta there? How was it when we went to hospital, shit for brains, 'cuz I happen to know a thing or two 'bout what happens to ya brain when ya lose consciousness in too much water!"
Their feet plant, firmly, on the concrete of the rooftop as they yell: "AIN'T PRETTY, HYOUSUKE! YOU BE BREATHIN' THROUGH A TUBE AN' PISSIN' THROUGH ANOTHER! An' if that happened to ya, guess fuckin' what, prick!? Woulda been on me! I'm the one what dragged ya out there! MY FAULT, SO FUCK OFF SAYIN' IT'S YOURS, DON'T TOUCH MY SHIT!"
(Is... is it really reasonable to get territorial about whose fault it is...? ... but Tsubasa's not really thinking with reason, right now.)
God help them, they're still yelling: "I'M MAD CUZ I DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU, ASSHOLE!"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika stops. She doesn't finish leaving, though she started to walk away. She pauses there, and doesn't look back until after Hyousuke starts speaking up. What he could've taken...
It's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of pressure, and part of her wants to run away immediately as a result. But Tsubasa speaks up, first.
"...WE're mad because we don't want to lose you," Ichika says, and turns back towards her partner and her friend again. "Sorry," she says. "I just..."
"I don't like being told what to do. And I don't deal great with guys who get all snarly at me."
"I dunno what I can say," she says. "It frustrates me, that you don't care about yourself. How am I supposed to invest in somebody who might not be there tomorrow? How am I supposed to react to being--" It's a lot of pressure.
"...Let us help," Ichika says. "It's not just your shit to deal with alone. It affects everybody. And it's only by working together we're going to get anywhere."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Instinct took hold the very moment that Tsubasa gripped his hand. As though struck by lightning, a shock seemed to run through his body, and he was pulled away from the brink. But it was not a recovery. It merely replaced his waning strength with frantic, momentary, surge of adrenaline. Eyes wide and muscles tensed, he became like stone, waiting to snap his hands up into a guard for a blow that never came. He supposed he might have preferred that Tsubasa and Ichika hit him - it would have been far easier to shake off than the alternative.
The admonishment struck him first, carving a hollow pit into his stomach that he could feel his heart sinking into. Tsubasa was right, of course. He'd failed. He'd been weak. He'd had to be dragged to hospital, the life all but strangled from him, and *he* was the one that spoke of losing *them.* Tsubasa's visceral description of what could've been him - what was so close to being him - struck like a sledgehammer next, stunning him and leaving his jaw quivering as he scrambled to find the words for a retort. But it was an attempt made in vain. His responses fell apart before they could leave his lips, manifesting as little more than quiet, choked, noises.
He could offer nothing in response but a wide-eyed, frenzied, glance. He was a wounded animal, backed into a corner by a relentless assault, almost flinching away withe very word levelled at him - like each one was a hunter's gunshot ringing out into the open air. Even Ichika's softer tone did not help. Quieter and calmer though it was, each word stuck him like a knife, the cold steel carving apart his flesh and sending chills rippling through his nerves. She was right, of course. About everything. A calmer him might have had more ways to rebuff their efforts, to downplay his feelings, to erect walls and stand proud behind them.
But that was not him.
Silence reigned once more. He could not look either of them in the eye, and shame was the reason. He hung his head, his posture slackened, and he almost seemed to curl into himself as if doing so would make him small enough to be beneath their notice. He could not speak for several seconds, nor even open his mouth to make a vain attempt at a rebuttal. When he finally did, his voice was weak. Brittle as glass and quiet as the pattering of spring rain upon the ground, the man that stood before them was a far cry from the one that had stumbled into their lives all those months ago.
"Then promise me something." He said. "Promise me that you won't leave me alone. Promise me that I won't lose you. Please, just... Just promise me that."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa knows that Ichika's got her own trauma around men who use their size, aggression, demands to get their way; they know it more closely than they'd like. But Hyousuke's not their father -- they can fight him. Can and should, in their mind, to protect Ichika from the way Hyousuke tried to intimidate them initially.
And why should it be Tsubasa, getting between him and her, and not Ichika protecting them?
It has everything to do with how much Tsubasa values the both of them... in a way Hyousuke would find startlingly familiar.
She, at least, speaks to Tsubasa's frustrations more calmly than their screaming; it gives Tsubasa the room to realise that from Hyousuke's point of view, he's the cornered animal, not the one cornering them.
The way he quails, after dealing with their yelling and Ichika's attempts to reason with him...
... Tsubasa is ashamed of the part of them which wants to crush him for it.
But Ichika assured them they're not their father; they take a sharp, long breath in, through their nose. "... I promise." Have they said it already? Never mind that; he clearly needs to hear it again. "When I Awakened, decided I was done with dyin'... that's why me threads look like a phoenix, man. Story goes, like, when the phoenix dies, it's consumed by flames an' reborn, so you can't fuckin' kill th' damn thing."
They shrug, rubbing at the back of their neck. "... look, man. Jus'... stick with me when we dealin' with them paintins', yeah? Least then you not goin' it alone."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika doesn't usually hit people she likes. Juat, as a rule. And despite that rough moment, Ichika does like Hyousuke. ...And she can see, now, how it would affect thigns. That it's not necessary, or good, or wanted.
"Yeah," Ichika says, agreeing with Tsubasa. "I can't..."
"I can't always promise I'll be there," she says. "Because sometimes, when you want something, you can't do it. No matter how much you want it."
"But I'll offer you this."
"...I won't leave you. If I'm not there, I'll find you."
"How am I supposed to heal you if I'm not there?"
"I'll tell you that I don't want to go anywhere."
"And I hope that's enough. We're friends, Hyousuke-kun. ...And I take care of my friends. You can take care of us, too--"
"But never forget it's gotta go both ways."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
As his mind began to settle - if only a little - the full weight of what he'd done began to set in. The shouting, the posturing, the demands, the anger... He'd been a wounded animal cornered and trapped in a snare, but there was no denying that he'd snarled and snapped at two people he treasured more than anything else. When it finally dawned on him what he'd done, the shame was unlike anything else he'd felt before. Fire ripped through his veins and burnt him from the inside, while bile bubbled up and singed at his throat. He hated it. He hated himself. He hated that he'd lost control, and that it'd been others that had taken the brunt of his anger.
Yet, despite it all, they remained. More than that, they indulged him, and made their promises when he begged. Some mote of stubbornness clung to his mind and stopped him from letting even a single tear fall, but it could do nothing to stop the quiet, staccato, heaving of his body as he held back his reaction to them pledging to help. He almost could not bring himself to look up, ashamed that they were able to offer such promises and reassurances to someone like him. But he lifted his head nonetheless, and forced himself to look them in the eye.
Hyousuke spoke only two words. It was all that he could summon the strength for. Even those two carried a great deal of weight, his voice beginning to crack under the strain of saying just them. They were no less genuine for it, however, and neither was the quivering smile he drew across his face.
"...Thank you."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa did kind of hit someone they liked... well, they grabbed him and dug their claws in for a second, anyway.
(They learned that trick from their father. And it's interesting how much like him you are in a fight, isn't it, Tsubasa? It makes a lot more sense how he'd act when you feel in in your throat.)
Ichika's promise is more grounded than Tsubasa's grand declaration; they hear that, too.
What if they can't help dying? What if they get jumped by one of those NWO assassins -- like the one who's specifically promised she will if they out her secret -- and they can't get free? What's gonna happen to Hyousuke, then...?
... it doesn't matter, they decide.
They're not gonna die.
That's the end of it.
"No prob, Hyousuke-kun," Tsubasa says, and with effort, they manage to gentle their voice when they say it. "Sorry I clawed ya back there, an', uh... I was rude." They yelled his voice yobisute, and that's before all their yelling in general...
"Hey, man," they start, awkwardly, "you uh... you wanna come with so I can grab Lance, an' we can go grab somethin' to eat or some shit? Could demolish some fuckin' karaage."
... one of the first effects of the hormones they've started taking -- aside from the evident mood swings -- is the god damn hunger, man.
And it's not like guys really know how to do this kinda touchy-feely shit, anyway.