InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "one for the money"

kondo kozue | 近藤梢 (anthesphoria) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2010-07-18 23:23:00

Entry tags:

kozue

SEEKRIT MEETING
Who: Kozue and Much of Team?
Where: Butterfly Room
When: Some time after 'dem big plot announcements
What: Meet. Talk. Panic? Probably panic.
Why: See what.

Kozue, it turned out, was actually fairly experienced in sneaking out of the dormitories.

She was just usually evading curfew and hall monitors, not the police or whoever was enforcing the Stay In Your Rooms Students policy... but maybe they were actually the hall monitors, or they were as practiced as the hall monitors were. It had been nerve-wracking, and she had been more careful than she almost ever was, but it had gone off almost seamlessly. And now she was in Noodle Alley, out of uniform and very quickly-and-not-suspiciously slipping into the secret door.

She held her breath and hoped that the angels hadn't somehow figured out how to get into the Room, but… where else was safe? From police and the principal and shadows and angels to boot? This was way too much. Just way, way too much for her. Hopefully Yoshi and Masami and Kai and Keiichi and Renju and whoever else would be here soon—they'd said they'd come, and that would make things easier because they could talk about it and not leave her in this terrified, uncertain place. She didn't even have Kiriko to walk there with, or Kiriko's nonchalant, uncaring cool to take heart from. She hadn't realized how much that made her feel safe, until just now, but…

"Hello?" She called out, as the door creaked open and she slipped into the blue-lit, calm, hopefully Not A Terrible Trap room.

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lotus_beyond
2010-07-19 04:24 am UTC (link)

It made Renju a little sick to think that the real world was nearly as dangerous as Paradise right now. To need to travel through it to avoid the better-known dangers outside was an unpleasantly foreign feeling, but she'd squared her shoulders and gone in through the most familiar route, for lack of a better option. Braving the all-too-familiar cold, she picked her way down through the depths of the frozen academy, holding fixed in her mind that faint thread that connected her to her sole protection from the shadows that lurked beneath the thin veneer of ice and stone.

But it was protection that had failed Seiji, and perhaps failed the angel as well. Something had gone very, very wrong, and until she found out what, she wouldn't be able to rest easy.

Then again, it was unlikely that many of them would be able to rest easily, if they knew and understood any of the implications of the other angels' plans.

The thin jacket she'd worn for warmth was barely enough by the time she reached the eighth-floor door (though even that was a sign that things were improving there--no signs of frostbite), and her hand trembled from more than simple tension as it pushed open the way to the garden--and the door to the Butterfly Room that lay at its end.

She emerged from a different door than Kozue had, and a little later, but quickly spotted and recognized her all the same. There were few faces she'd have liked to see more right at that moment. "Kondo-san! You're all right?"

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mellow_lellow
2010-07-19 11:06 am UTC (link)

Seiko had managed to escape the dorms fairly easily, years of practice and a ninja boyfriend kind of made things easier. Not that Tom had really taught her anything about escaping but thinking about him had made it easier to be totally sneaky. She felt fairly proud of herself for getting out so fast.

Finding out Mikio had died, even if the boy wasn't human, felt heavy in her chest, he had helped them, he'd been a little strange of course. But if he wasn't even human then it must have been hard for him to know how to act, it all made him seem even more pitiful. Having been trapped in Paradise, and feeling so close to death in there made it all feel suddenly so painfully real and dangerous. Even the outside world suddenly seemed more menacing. She shivered, she'd thrown a jacket on over her new, tasteful and decidedly not pink clothes, and despite the drama and danger of the situation looked unusually well dressed, considering she had been living in her pajamas the past few days.

Slipping in through the door Kozue had come through a few minutes before she felt a little safer in the Butterfly Room than on the street, but she'd still rather be nowhere near anything Paradise related. Her desire to run home and curl up under a blanket was troubling, she wasn't used to this kind of fear.

"Hey guys." She said with a wave at the other two girls, "both okay?" She seemed almost disappointed to only see the two of them, looking around as if she had expected someone else to have already arrived.

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2dbeauty
2010-07-19 11:25 am UTC (link)

As he entered the butterfly room, Toru felt a twisting feeling in his stomach. It was akin to a ball of cables at his core, pulled from every direction. Seiji dying, the school closing, everything that had happened in the past week... It was all too much. Kozue was right. They needed to have a meeting ASAP.

Mortality. Toru had thought that he was one of the heroes, that he couldn't die. That his classmate could die. That someone like them- an angel- could die. It was too much for his mind at the moment, that by extension, he could die, too. Without saving his friends and Iburi.

Upon entering, he noted (thankfully) that Kozue was there. Renju was too. And... Seiko. That induced a nervous gulp. This was supposed to be a safe space, right?

"H-hi, everyone...."

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the_nadeshiko
2010-07-19 02:00 pm UTC (link)

The events of the past week, culminating in the school's close, had made Kai's parents nervous - nervous enough that they were hesitant to let him go anywhere, even in broad daylight. Even though he'd never had to do it before, sneaking out had been easy enough.

He didn't know why he was going, though. The Butterfly Room was another reminder of his terror. If anything, he should've been running away. It was hard enough to make himself go into Paradise even when it was other people's lives at stake. Now that it had been proved beyond a doubt that his own was as well? It was certainly impossible. Running away was the best bet, or so his mind screamed as he opened the door in Noodle Alley.

"Hey," he said when he saw that others had arrived, his voice flat and lacking pleasantry. Usually he could at least fake cheer when the others were around.

Skipping over the usual considerate remarks like 'I'm glad you're all alright,' Kai jumped right to what was bothering him the most: "This is insane."

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anthesphoria
2010-07-19 11:12 pm UTC (link)

When Renju had come in, Kozue's face had, in a strange display, simultaneously looked pleased and suddenly, worried; Renju was okay and Renju was here, which meant that things had to take a turn for the better because Renju could make all the hard decisions. Right? And that was exactly when the connection between Renju and Seiji hit her. Renju's Persona. What had happened, now that Mikio was…

The thought was ugly, but Kozue found herself hoping that Prometheus would just go back to Renju and she'd be okay, again. Able to use her Persona. But what if it had hurt her, instead? "I'm fine, you're, are you," she started, but that was when Seiko arrived. Kozue's words tumbled to a stop and, before she could regain herself, two had turned into three and three had turned into five.

She looked around, between the Persona users that were already there, and bit her lip. After a moment of thought, it was Kai's comment that she actually found she could follow best. "Yeah. It's. I don't know, it's really fucked up."

Which about summed up her feelings on the matter. But it wasn't helpful. If they waited for more people to come, maybe someone else would know something. Or nobody else could be coming, because the hall monitors were suddenly more active, or they were all too scared and had stayed home. "... but I guess we need to figure out something to do about it, right?"

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lotus_beyond
2010-07-20 02:04 am UTC (link)

Renju sat heavily on an arm of the couch, nudging away a worried-looking hugdoll (how could a doll look worried, anyway? It was baffling) with her foot. "It seems like all of us are fine so far." That, at least, was some small comfort. "The only ones whom I haven't seen check in so far are Aoi-san and Nishihara-san, and given that it's only been a few hours, I'm certain they'll turn up."

She paused, and when she spoke again, quieter than before, she seemed significantly more downcast. "He should have been protected. Prometheus is still there, I can feel him, but Mikio-kun still..." She eyed the corridor and its doors. She needed to know what happened, but was it worth the risk of reentering that place so soon after Seiji had been attacked? And who knew what might have happened to Raphael? There was nothing about this situation that was remotely comfortable, no solid facts she could take any sort of solace in. But even so...

"At any rate, Kondo-san is right. We can't keep waiting. I don't intend to push in without a plan like Sagaki-senpai, but we need to go back in soon and find out what happened."

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ofmanydevices
2010-07-20 04:14 am UTC (link)

"I never do anything without a plan, Sonozaki-san."

Tom had some how managed to enter quietly, which was no trivial task considering in his arm was a tiny puppy that was straining to get free and see the people in the butterfly room. He had spent the afternoon trying to keep an eye on the police to make sure their "suspects' didn't include the members of the investigation team. Doing that without seeming suspicious was an even more difficult task then keeping Max calm enough to sneak in. One which Tom was not yet skilled enough to pull off. He wasn't sure if the cops had targeted them yet, but was pretty sure they had.

He put Max on the floor, and the small ball of fluff immediately took off toward Kozue.

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mellow_lellow
2010-07-20 09:58 am UTC (link)

Seiko sidled up to Tom surprisingly quietly and quickly, she was glad to see him safe, though perhaps a little selfishly, or at least in her mind it was, she was glad he was there because Tom made her feel safer. It wasn't just because he was her boyfriend (it was still weird to think of him with that word) but she was fairly sure he was at least armed with something pointy, and that was a lot more comforting than someone who was unprepared.She didn't reach out and grab his hand as much as she wanted to, instead she just stood close to him, her shoulder bumping his occasionally as she shifted her weight nervously.

"Well the thing is, did Mikio-san die because of us? He sort of betrayed the others? Or at least he was working with us, helping us, so did he die because of us?" She sighed. "Either way as reluctant as I am to go back in that place" her gaze flicked to Renju for a second, maybe Renju hadn't realised how unhappy it made her to have to go back into Paradise but she still felt a faint sting of resentment when she thought about how she had been assigned to go in and investigate so soon after her ordeal in Paradise.

"He was an ally and I think we should go in to work out what happened to him, maybe not to get 'revenge' exactly. But we owe him." She spoke fairly quietly and seriously, her previous enthusiastic attitude nowhere to be seen.

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sakurabamasami
2010-07-20 06:26 pm UTC (link)

Masami had somehow managed to slip out of the dorm with her kendo weapon bag over one shoulder, though it had taken some pretty crackerjack sneaking on her part. It wasn't too often that she tried to disregard curfew, but normally when she did, it was a simple affair of claiming that she just wanted to practice outside to the hall monitors(Nanakamado wasn't about to stop the star kendoka who'd brought them so much prestige from practicing when she wanted to, after all). This time though, she figured her usual technique wouldn't work, and getting out while evading the hall monitors had taken some doing.

"Sorry I'm late," she said as she stepped into the butterfly room, "Are you all OK?"

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anthesphoria
2010-07-22 10:58 pm UTC (link)

Kozue had been about to say something, but with the sudden appearance (sudden, but not really surprising, because a surprising Tom appearance was seldom, if ever, thematically a surprise) of Tom and Max, she was sidetracked. Mostly by Max.

She bent down and scooped him up, cooing and making generic puppy talk at him—things along the lines of I'm so glad you're okay and the bad angels didn't hurt you and reminding him that he was a cute puppy. As Masami arrived, she looked up, and nodded. "It seems like everyone is okay, I've heard from mostly everyone. ... Probably someone should text Aoi-san and Nishihara-san and see what they're up to." Now would definitely be the time to strike. Misaki had already been into Paradise, but Kozue wasn't sure that it was a guarantee of safety. After all, they had thought Seiji was safe, too...

That thought bothered her. She turned to look at Renju again. "So... if Prometheus was protecting him, and Prometheus is still there..." She frowned. "I mean, did anybody see him?" She hugged Max slightly closer. "His body, I mean. What if they didn't hurt him through Paradise?" It would be easy enough to just kill one teenager the normal way, right? "Either way, yeah. We need to find out what happened, right? To the angel, too. He could still be there, after what he said about him and Mikio-san being so much separated."

She looked between the already-gathered members, able to ask questions, not quite able to propose something. "... so what should we do?"

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lotus_beyond
2010-07-23 02:54 am UTC (link)

The glance did not escape Renju, even as she inclined her head slightly in acknowledgment of Tom's entrance and casual apology for her phrasing. It was baffling, and a little irritating, but calling Seiko on it or letting it ruffle her feathers would be a waste of time at this point.

"I would suggest trying to find Mikio-kun as well, but given the amount of security right now..." Renju shot a brief, thoughtful look at Tom, then shook her head. "It's not likely that any of us will be able to manage it safely. We might be suspects, after all..." The thought disturbed her. At least they had somewhere to go that was safe from the temporal authorities.

"I think that, as Yukizaki-san said, our best link to what happened is the angel. At least some of us should return to Seiji's place to find it again." Another glance, this one a wary look down towards the doors that led to the various dungeons. "Though it may be risky right now, with the angels active, we seem to have few other options."

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ofmanydevices
2010-07-25 03:02 am UTC (link)

"By the time I got there the police were already swarming the place. I tried to keep an eye on them to make sure they weren't looking to us." Tom looked at Seiko, contemplating putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. He looked toward Kozue, and recalled her advice on not being clingy and weird. He let his arm hang at his side.

Max on the other hand was happy to be clingy, and licked Kozue's arm, his tail wagging furiously. He intended to make a full round to everyone in the group, but as long as love and cuddles continued, he would stick with the person that loved him.

"I'm already out of my dorm, back in my father's house. He doesn't care about me being there, but I don't think he'd want Max around. I'm not sure what to do with him. Though in the interim I've set up a hotel room that can't be traced back to us where I can keep him, and anyone else who needs it, at least for a few days." At the mention of angels, Tom's eyes narrowed, and he found himself grinding his teeth.

"I'm arranging for the angels to have problems of their own. Fujiwara is gone, I'm making sure he can't come back. I'll be presenting evidence to the police that he was up to wrong doing, and that he attacked me in his store. That coupled with his association to Mikio and his having fled... it'll make him a prime suspect. The police will investigate him, and hopefully anyone he's associated with. With luck our enemies will need to worry about getting caught now too." Tom's hands clenched into fists.

"As for finding them in Paradise... well if we do, we can consider ourselves very lucky to speak to them on behalf of Mikio." Tom could barely contain the anger in his voice as he thought of what they might do should they find the Angels in paradise.

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mellow_lellow
2010-07-26 02:45 pm UTC (link)

"I think we should all be able to put people up or find places to stay, it'd be better to stick together even if it is in pairs, if Mikio was taken into Paradise, or well whatever was done to him it is better for us to be able to look out for each other." She sighed, solving this wasn't what concerned her, she knew she wasn't smart enough to work out the murderer, what was more important to her was everyone being protected, safe. After her own ordeal in Paradise everything seemed a thousand times more dangerous, more worrying.

"We should wait a while before we go in to Paradise, I imagine the murderer might suspect us to go in immediately, we can't just rush in they might be waiting for us." She paused with a frown, Tom sounded angry about this, but even though she knew the angels were their 'enemies' she wondered if they others were too as confused as Mikio not human, having to fulfill some higher goal?

"Easy tiger." She said glancing at Tom. "We don't even know for certain if it was them who did this, not only that but didn't Mikio work for Fujiwara or something? Maybe they were friends? Maybe this is more complicated emotionally than just a traitor being silenced." Perhaps she just was trying to justify their actions to try to understand them, or get all this into something she could understand.

She sighed, this all also probably meant date plans were off, not that she wasn't appriciating the gravity of the situation. But after getting thrown into Paradise, having her friends (and assorted acquaintances) see her deepest darkest thoughts and feelings, being stuck half naked to a statue, then once rescued had to deal with her suddenly rediscovered inner bitch and boyfriend trouble along with being forced onto a mission in Paradise? She felt like she had at least deserved one date before they got thrown back into the crazy quite so hard.

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