If you were none of these (32/?)
anonymous
March 31 2013, 07:47:50 UTC
It rains.
But what’s the point? They’re caught and found out. She’s just blown her cover on Shirogane, hoping that he’d understand instead of being a huge prick.
Rise watches the Midnight Channel anyway. She’s tired and still hungry. Her scars aches. Her sleeves smell like meat. At midnight, a fuzzy shape shows up-but she can’t tell what it is. Then is the news, claiming that they’ve solved the freak murder cases happening in town…
She rests in the bed and breathes shallowly. As she drifts off to sleep, she remembers that Shirogane’s flowers are still in her bag. She forgot to give them to him.
*
give in(the rescue remix/7)
“Hi guys,” Rise says when she steps into the TV.
Yosuke’s on shift. He nods to her and says, “Yo.” Kanji’s stirring next to him. Yukiko was sleeping nearby the last time he looked, but now she’s standing against a wall, fire flaring nervously around her shoulders and hair.
“Wow,” Rise says. “You guys all look beat. I brought breakfast.”
“Great,” Yosuke says. He yawns. Opening his mouth so wide without putting food into it makes him hungrier.
Rise lets them know, in no uncertain terms, that security in and around Junes has increased, and the police is circulating the footage of them attacking Shirogane nationally. They’re boxed in.
“Great,” Yosuke says, again. Maybe next they’ll find out that this is all just their shitty cancer dream or something. He would take cancer over this anyday.
After they eat, they go looking for Souji. Rise puts on her scary demon form, a demon princess stabbed through the face with a golden sword, and guides them through the fog and gloom to the shopping district, and then to a backdoor leading to a dark room full of boxes and bottles. In the corner of the room, sleeping on a pile of folded up boxes, is Souji.
Rise can’t say anything because her face is currently a sattelite dish. So Yosuke’s the one who goes out to poke at him, his arms and hands Jiraiya’s, and his eyes half-frog, half-not. He touches the thing’s shoulder. Souji spins around and digs his teeth into his arm.
“Ow!” Yosuke says. “Ow, ow, ow!” He hits Souji over the head, straight in the jaw, across the brow. Souji’s human teeth aren’t strong enough to break through armor, but it hurts anyway. And he’s drooling, which is really ugly.
At last, Souji jerks and shivers. His jaws go slack around Yosuke’s arm. He grips Yosuke’s shoulder with a hand. For a moment they stare into each other’s eyes, Yosuke searching desperately for any gold, and Souji’s face wan with hunger and fear. Souji’s body is heavy and slack, a length of rope without tension. Yosuke draws Souji into his arms for a long hug.
“Thank god,” Yosuke says. “Thank god you’re okay.”
After a moment, he feels Souji’s arms come up around him. “Yeah,” he says. “Thank you. For finding me.”
*
They saved some of the meat for Souji. Rise and Yosuke are the one who fills in most of the blanks for Souji: Chie’s death, Shirogane’s infection, Shirogane turning Rise down.
“Guess it’d be too much to hope for, to have him on our side,” Souji says. He rubs his chin. It’s stubbly, a few shades darker than his hair. He still looks exhausted, and he’s only looked worse since finding out about Chie, grave and serious. The only time he’s looked okay since they’ve found him is when they told him Nanako is okay. “All right. Well, this is what I’ve found out. Whoever killed Saki-senpai did it in the police station.”
“What makes you say that?” Kanji says, crossing his arms.
“Because this is where Saki-senpai died,” Yosuke says. He recognizes the interior now: the bottles of wine and beer, the dark splatter of blood everywhere. “You’re shitting me. That means whoever did this is a police officer, right?”
“Dunno about that, senpai,” Kanji says. “I don’t remember any of those assholes coming after me. Fact, they didn’t come nowhere near me.”
If you were none of these (33/?)
anonymous
March 31 2013, 07:48:49 UTC
“But they sent the police after Yukiko-san when they thought she vanished, right?” Yosuke said. “And they had Adachi-san for Rise-chan.”
“Yamano-san had some members of the police guarding her room,” Yukiko says suddenly. “They were on shifts. Adachi-san was one of them.”
“You’re just saying that because you want to kill him,” Yosuke says.
“I’m not making it up,” she says, her voice distorting in an ugly way.
“No, she isn’t making it up,” Kanji says. “I remember it. Amagi-san, Yukiko-senpai’s mom, was complaining about it to my Ma. Said they got that sleazy detective on watch.”
“You guys got to be kidding me,” Yosuke says. “That’s it? We all decide that it’s him, just like that?”
“Dunno,” Kanji says. “That all sounds pretty damning to me.”
“That guy always gave me the creeps,” Rise chimes in. They aren’t totally familiar with Himiko’s capabilities yet, but it’s true that Rise found Souji way faster than any of them could have-faster than Teddie had ever found anything.
Between Adachi shooting Chie right in the back of the head instead of, he doesn’t know, just hitting her with a stick, between him being everywhere in the wrong place… Yeah. He’s basically convinced.
“Okay,” he says. “Okay. So let’s say Adachi’s the real bad guy. So what does that mean-what are we going to do?”
They all look to Souji for this one. He blinks back at them, tired and slow.
“Let’s worry about one thing at a time,” he says. “We know our target. We get our hands on Adachi and take him here.”
“Yeah,” Yosuke says. But he can’t help but think what Chie would’ve said here, what she would’ve done. While the others are picking themselves up, Rise and Kanji talking amiably and Yukiko occasionally smiling at Rise’s jokes, he goes up to Souji, careful like. Souji nods to him in acknowledgment. “We’re partners, right?”
“All right,” he says.
That’s close enough to what Yosuke wants to hear.
“What I mean is,” Yosuke says, “you’re our leader. You’re that guy we all trust. And, I don’t know, things are crazy now. I just need to know what you’re planning on doing afterwards. You know?”
“Afterwards?” he says. He puts a hand to his head, thinks. “Yosuke, honestly? I’m planning on doing what I’ve always done. Keep us all alive and not die.”
“But we need to think of logistics,” Yosuke says. “Like, where are we going to go, where are we going to stay-hell, I bet the whole country’s on alert for us now. Are we going to stay here forever?”
“What does it matter as long as we’re all alive?” Souji says, calm and even, without even a hint of anger. “As long as we’re alive, there’s hope. Do you trust me, Yosuke?”
“Yeah,” he says.
Souji gives him a smile. And then he leans over and hugs him. Yosuke stiffens.
“It’ll be okay,” Souji says. “You’ll see.”
*
Souji falls behind as they head back to the hub in the TV World to talk to her. He doesn’t seem like his usual self: more tired, more hungry. Sadder. When Yukiko looks at him, it’s like she’s looking at half of Souji, so tired and so sad. At last. She’s glad he understands her. When he reaches out to her with one arm, she lets herself fall into him.
If you were none of these (34/?)
anonymous
March 31 2013, 07:50:30 UTC
He doesn’t hold her too tightly. She swallows down her hunger and focuses not on his warmth or his smell, but on the demon she can feel. His atma is on the back of his neck, perfectly centered and tempting. Even through the whole width of his body, she can feel its warmth.
“It’ll be all right,” she says. “Now that you’re here.”
He puts a hand on her shoulder, and eases her away. Yosuke is watching them with a suspicious eye. She wishes he’d stop looking at them so intensely. It’s weird.
“You’re holding up all right?” Souji says.
“Yes,” Yukiko says. She can feel Chie within her, icy and agonizing in her veins. Sometimes she focuses on that coldness inside her, but it’s fading. She tries now, but only feels a sharp twinge in her wrist-she focuses her attention back to Souji. “It’ll be fine,” she says. “It’ll be fine, now that you’re back. But Souji-kun, I need to know. What are you planning on doing to Adachi-san?”
“Ah. That’s easy. If he is the murderer, then we kill him. If he’s not guilty, then he dies for killing Chie.” He gives the answer without blinking. Is he only reflecting what she wants back at her? She can’t tell. She can tell that he’s being honest. That’s good enough for now.
“Good,” she says. “Thank you.”
That’s the last conversation she has with him for a while.
((WOW, please ignore that anon-fail.
last update for the night for real. it's strange to think about style changes over the years. I like to justify it with, "different stage of the story" but sssshh. Hope to see you at the next update.))
If you were none of these - info for future updates!
anonymous
April 30 2013, 05:10:41 UTC
I've thought about it a lot, and I've decided to post updates to AO3 instead of LJ for a few reasons: * the ao3 has the final version of previous chapters * the previous chapters have a few differences in scene+tone that I'm working from that don't make sense if you're reading off the bathhouse * convenience
I've posted it to an anonymous collection, and will be "deanoning," so to speak, once I've finished the fic. Hope to see you there!
But what’s the point? They’re caught and found out. She’s just blown her cover on Shirogane, hoping that he’d understand instead of being a huge prick.
Rise watches the Midnight Channel anyway. She’s tired and still hungry. Her scars aches. Her sleeves smell like meat. At midnight, a fuzzy shape shows up-but she can’t tell what it is. Then is the news, claiming that they’ve solved the freak murder cases happening in town…
She rests in the bed and breathes shallowly. As she drifts off to sleep, she remembers that Shirogane’s flowers are still in her bag. She forgot to give them to him.
*
give in(the rescue remix/7)
“Hi guys,” Rise says when she steps into the TV.
Yosuke’s on shift. He nods to her and says, “Yo.” Kanji’s stirring next to him. Yukiko was sleeping nearby the last time he looked, but now she’s standing against a wall, fire flaring nervously around her shoulders and hair.
“Wow,” Rise says. “You guys all look beat. I brought breakfast.”
“Great,” Yosuke says. He yawns. Opening his mouth so wide without putting food into it makes him hungrier.
Rise lets them know, in no uncertain terms, that security in and around Junes has increased, and the police is circulating the footage of them attacking Shirogane nationally. They’re boxed in.
“Great,” Yosuke says, again. Maybe next they’ll find out that this is all just their shitty cancer dream or something. He would take cancer over this anyday.
After they eat, they go looking for Souji. Rise puts on her scary demon form, a demon princess stabbed through the face with a golden sword, and guides them through the fog and gloom to the shopping district, and then to a backdoor leading to a dark room full of boxes and bottles. In the corner of the room, sleeping on a pile of folded up boxes, is Souji.
Rise can’t say anything because her face is currently a sattelite dish. So Yosuke’s the one who goes out to poke at him, his arms and hands Jiraiya’s, and his eyes half-frog, half-not. He touches the thing’s shoulder. Souji spins around and digs his teeth into his arm.
“Ow!” Yosuke says. “Ow, ow, ow!” He hits Souji over the head, straight in the jaw, across the brow. Souji’s human teeth aren’t strong enough to break through armor, but it hurts anyway. And he’s drooling, which is really ugly.
At last, Souji jerks and shivers. His jaws go slack around Yosuke’s arm. He grips Yosuke’s shoulder with a hand. For a moment they stare into each other’s eyes, Yosuke searching desperately for any gold, and Souji’s face wan with hunger and fear. Souji’s body is heavy and slack, a length of rope without tension. Yosuke draws Souji into his arms for a long hug.
“Thank god,” Yosuke says. “Thank god you’re okay.”
After a moment, he feels Souji’s arms come up around him. “Yeah,” he says. “Thank you. For finding me.”
*
They saved some of the meat for Souji. Rise and Yosuke are the one who fills in most of the blanks for Souji: Chie’s death, Shirogane’s infection, Shirogane turning Rise down.
“Guess it’d be too much to hope for, to have him on our side,” Souji says. He rubs his chin. It’s stubbly, a few shades darker than his hair. He still looks exhausted, and he’s only looked worse since finding out about Chie, grave and serious. The only time he’s looked okay since they’ve found him is when they told him Nanako is okay. “All right. Well, this is what I’ve found out. Whoever killed Saki-senpai did it in the police station.”
“What makes you say that?” Kanji says, crossing his arms.
“Because this is where Saki-senpai died,” Yosuke says. He recognizes the interior now: the bottles of wine and beer, the dark splatter of blood everywhere. “You’re shitting me. That means whoever did this is a police officer, right?”
“Dunno about that, senpai,” Kanji says. “I don’t remember any of those assholes coming after me. Fact, they didn’t come nowhere near me.”
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“Yamano-san had some members of the police guarding her room,” Yukiko says suddenly. “They were on shifts. Adachi-san was one of them.”
“You’re just saying that because you want to kill him,” Yosuke says.
“I’m not making it up,” she says, her voice distorting in an ugly way.
“No, she isn’t making it up,” Kanji says. “I remember it. Amagi-san, Yukiko-senpai’s mom, was complaining about it to my Ma. Said they got that sleazy detective on watch.”
“You guys got to be kidding me,” Yosuke says. “That’s it? We all decide that it’s him, just like that?”
“Dunno,” Kanji says. “That all sounds pretty damning to me.”
“That guy always gave me the creeps,” Rise chimes in. They aren’t totally familiar with Himiko’s capabilities yet, but it’s true that Rise found Souji way faster than any of them could have-faster than Teddie had ever found anything.
Between Adachi shooting Chie right in the back of the head instead of, he doesn’t know, just hitting her with a stick, between him being everywhere in the wrong place… Yeah. He’s basically convinced.
“Okay,” he says. “Okay. So let’s say Adachi’s the real bad guy. So what does that mean-what are we going to do?”
They all look to Souji for this one. He blinks back at them, tired and slow.
“Let’s worry about one thing at a time,” he says. “We know our target. We get our hands on Adachi and take him here.”
“Yeah,” Yosuke says. But he can’t help but think what Chie would’ve said here, what she would’ve done. While the others are picking themselves up, Rise and Kanji talking amiably and Yukiko occasionally smiling at Rise’s jokes, he goes up to Souji, careful like. Souji nods to him in acknowledgment. “We’re partners, right?”
“All right,” he says.
That’s close enough to what Yosuke wants to hear.
“What I mean is,” Yosuke says, “you’re our leader. You’re that guy we all trust. And, I don’t know, things are crazy now. I just need to know what you’re planning on doing afterwards. You know?”
“Afterwards?” he says. He puts a hand to his head, thinks. “Yosuke, honestly? I’m planning on doing what I’ve always done. Keep us all alive and not die.”
“But we need to think of logistics,” Yosuke says. “Like, where are we going to go, where are we going to stay-hell, I bet the whole country’s on alert for us now. Are we going to stay here forever?”
“What does it matter as long as we’re all alive?” Souji says, calm and even, without even a hint of anger. “As long as we’re alive, there’s hope. Do you trust me, Yosuke?”
“Yeah,” he says.
Souji gives him a smile. And then he leans over and hugs him. Yosuke stiffens.
“It’ll be okay,” Souji says. “You’ll see.”
*
Souji falls behind as they head back to the hub in the TV World to talk to her. He doesn’t seem like his usual self: more tired, more hungry. Sadder. When Yukiko looks at him, it’s like she’s looking at half of Souji, so tired and so sad. At last. She’s glad he understands her. When he reaches out to her with one arm, she lets herself fall into him.
Reply
“It’ll be all right,” she says. “Now that you’re here.”
He puts a hand on her shoulder, and eases her away. Yosuke is watching them with a suspicious eye. She wishes he’d stop looking at them so intensely. It’s weird.
“You’re holding up all right?” Souji says.
“Yes,” Yukiko says. She can feel Chie within her, icy and agonizing in her veins. Sometimes she focuses on that coldness inside her, but it’s fading. She tries now, but only feels a sharp twinge in her wrist-she focuses her attention back to Souji. “It’ll be fine,” she says. “It’ll be fine, now that you’re back. But Souji-kun, I need to know. What are you planning on doing to Adachi-san?”
“Ah. That’s easy. If he is the murderer, then we kill him. If he’s not guilty, then he dies for killing Chie.” He gives the answer without blinking. Is he only reflecting what she wants back at her? She can’t tell. She can tell that he’s being honest. That’s good enough for now.
“Good,” she says. “Thank you.”
That’s the last conversation she has with him for a while.
((WOW, please ignore that anon-fail.
last update for the night for real. it's strange to think about style changes over the years. I like to justify it with, "different stage of the story" but sssshh. Hope to see you at the next update.))
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Reply
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* the ao3 has the final version of previous chapters
* the previous chapters have a few differences in scene+tone that I'm working from that don't make sense if you're reading off the bathhouse
* convenience
I've posted it to an anonymous collection, and will be "deanoning," so to speak, once I've finished the fic. Hope to see you there!
Reply
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