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midnightmaiden) wrote2033-10-29 08:00 am
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personavelvetroomdr.]Uh hey there, Yoshizawa-san! This is Maruki! I figured I should send you a chat but I don't think I could explain my...current predicament the same way you guys do so listen- my arm is basically disintegrated. I had a wild run-in with one of the Rens here and I don't think I left a good first impression on him haha...anyways yeah, that's about it. Please shoot me a message when you are free or call me- I am unsure on how to proceed from here.Thank goodness you replied back. Its nothing too bad. I actually had some people visit my office here in Odaiba...which I had no idea about by the way- but I am going to wrap up soon.
This metaverse is in Shibuya circle, right? I am unsure on if it would fix my arm but yes please-! I will take anything at this point. My arm is nearly rotting.
"I will see you soon then."
Maruki sighs as he lowers his phone and looks onward. His work here in Odaiba is done- he should get moving. He steels his nerves and brings his disintegrated arm to gesture towards the long tall buildings at the north- concentrating so that his tentacles could let him traverse there in time since he forgot to carry his train ID- and hey the tickets don't come cheap!
A tentacle flies up in the air, wrapping around a pole but all of a sudden Maruki collapses- his energy draining as his heart starts banging within his chest. "Hn! Hn!" he wheezes as he falls to his knees and curls. He doesn't...he doesn't have the energy to traverse like this. This can't be good. His eyes widen as he shakes his head and sighs.
Great. Must be the drawback to his regenerative ability. Going by the train is the only way then. He will just have to make sure no one catches him skipping through the counters.
======
Maruki has never been scared of anything more in this entire life.
The whole station was empty. He ran into a whole bunch of black globs instead with shiny red eyes who were skedaddling away from him when he tried to go around their path- his legs shaking all the way before he finally ran into a bunch of cognitions of other people now traversing in the vehicle.
Soon after, he left the trains- thankful for the fewer number of those black inky creatures as he finds himself standing at the top of the stairs. His gaze falls on the bench where he, Dove and...Briar was it? Well, he hasn't heard from her at all after their little incident and Dove- right. He needs to book an appointment with him regarding journalling.
He will get to it soon then. For now, he pulls out his fifth snack for the day- a vanilla milkshake as he tries to calm his jittery nerves with the horror show he had witnessed while using the trains here.
Though he supposes that's just the usual public transport, he isn't surprised by the imagery at all.
Maruki barely makes it there as he's called by his name. He immediately recognizes that voice, now turning to the young girl as she practically runs at him. He holds his arms up in surprise as he blinks at her in shock before putting away the milkshake from his lips. He quickly wipes at them with his bandaged knuckles for good measure.
"Is everything alright, Yoshizawa-san..?!" he asks as he carefully observes her. No sudden attacks but- "Oh. Seems like I worried you too much with that voicemail, huh?"
Today and yesterday had played total polar opposites for him but one constant had always been this air of mystery around Kasumi. This sense of urgency he didn't notice in the Kasumi of his own world- now grasping onto him like she was drowning and he was the one lifeline holding her up the surface. He doesn't know if that is just his skepticism getting into play here but it could also perhaps be in regards to the severity of his own injury.
He tries to nervously chuckle as way to allay her fears. "It was worse yesterday actually- now I just feel very drained and um, well its not best if I had the injury out in the open..." he closes his eyes for a moment then opens it as the small glass of milkshake in his hand evaporates. "While I appreciate it I can assure you, I am still okay. Not like I came screaming or anything." He continues with a small sincere smile. There's this boundary he would like to keep intact between them.
"Also yeah this Mementos-" he jabs behind him at the pit of darkness he power walked right through from. "-is this Mementos? Or is the app thing I remember hearing from Igor."
He laughs nervously. "Uh...I don't think I wanna go back to those black glob-like monsters." Brings back memories. Too many to count.
"Cendrillon, you say?" he perks up at the name. "That's the other name for Cinderella, isn't it?" He sighs as he keeps catching her gaze on his arm. His insides feel mush with shame at the fact that he's getting someone like a highschooler worried about a grown ass adult like him. Especially someone like him. It's embarassing really but its not something he would admit out loud- he's simply the type to work alone and Yoshizawa's concern, even if they are meant well, just makes him further shrink into his own shell.
"Healing my hand- well I suppose that's something out of a fairy tale," he sighs as he can still feel slight tremours in his hand when he simply lets it fall to the side. It aches like a migraine at the back of one's hand and he does not want to imagine what kind of horrors would flow once its unveiled.
"Alright, fine. I believe you," he nods ever so slowly as he balls his good hand. "Take me to this mementos. I will explain the rest of the story to you there."After all who knows if Ren might still be here, waiting at one of the corners.
The metanav...
Right. The phantom thieves did the same thing the first time he came to this school, did they not? In one second he's looking at Kasumi speaking into the metanav and in the next its as if spirals have suddenly overcome his visions- lolling and peaking in through the edges as his whole body feels like its in the air for a moment before he's back on ground again.
Darkness envelopes them as Maruki looks around at the bright red train tracks and railings running down on the ground. Sumire is now in an almost all-black outfit, a lot unlike the student he knows from Shujin with the black mask on her face. The ripples clearly have affected him as well as he finds himself looking down at a white gloved hand and dressed in all whites again. He's sticking out like a sore thumb here.
And then the persona appears, reminding him once again of the winged monster erupting behind Ren yesterday. His eyes widen as he watches the gold and crimson mix with each other but oh wait this is different-
He's nearly taken aback, one step behind the other before the heel of his shoe hits the railing and he almost falls before a tentacle erupts and solidifies itself into the ground- letting him stand upright again. "Wow, that was- not embarassing at all," he cuts as the tentacle leaves the ground and disappears. "So this is mementos?" He looks up at the wild outlines of this other world manifested from the app. "I saw Kurusu-kun and his friends disappearing like this as well- you kids really are getting into dangerous matters."
"And the persona..." Its as if he's looking at a star. Or perhaps a meteorite now piercing the earth's atmosphere to look like a piece of sun itself. "That Ren had a similar one- it had wings...I think? He called it Raoul."
Its then Yoshizawa throws the question at her. He nods, "Yeah just let me get the injury out so even I will have some idea on what happened to it." He carefully slips out his injured hand from his sleeve- now showing off the entire area of damage done to his arm whilst rolling up his sleeve. The bandage was wrapped all around his fingers to his elbow- slight black veins peaking up and disappearing into the folded creases as he groans from its own sight then offers a quick glance to the young red haired girl. "Sorry its a bit gorey," he says as if he doesn't know what kind of madness these people go through as he removes the pin of his bandage and lets the linen fall.
The hand has faded into a near charred skin tone with small flecks of green now showing in small areas where the bullets were embedded into him yesterday. Its too much of a mess to look at. He quickly covers up the entire wound with his other arm. "Go ahead, please."
The warmth comes in waves.
Its as if he's waking up from a proper long sleep and pleasant dreams, mouth falling in surprise as the spell or whatever the persona did on him had actually transformed him somehow! A true example of a miracle.. He couldn't believe it as the black charr slowly ebbs away from his skin- now melting back to his usual skin colour as he was anticipating pain coming from the fast healing process. Its like a surgery, right? The way his persona did?
But no. Its nothing like that.
The light dims as he looks down at his hand, now pulling at the sleeve of his turtleneck as his white blazar hangs off on the other end. "Oh- it's-! It's gone-!" The shocks shifts into excitement and relief. "Oh goodness I didn't think I would be able to recover my arm! Thank you so much, Yoshizawa-san!"
The pain is gone paired with the exhaustion. Its just then that he stops, his brows furrow as he focuses on the pinky of his once injured finger. There's a green blemish there. "Huh...I guess there's some residue left. Atleast it doesn't hurt."
Maruki for once goes completely quiet as his widened eyes regard her with nothing more than actual genuine confusion. From the moment she starts talking about a reality where he gave that Ren a choice to...the fact that Ren accepted it and things changed between them.
"What are you talking about, Yoshizawa-san?"
You know exactly what she's talking about.
He remembered that image when he was trying to defend himself against that Ren but that's not...that's not right. That was just something his brain came up with in immense stress. This can't possibly be right. He shakes his head as he looks away from the red haired girl and curls up his gloved hands. "Why would he face me for his true reality? All I have ever done is use patients for-"-my powers as subjects for my research.
All of a sudden he stops, realizing just what was going to come out from his mouth. For some reason a knot grows in his chest at the thought of what the girl might think if he continued that sentence. Hence he back pedals and blinks, "I mean use patients' experiences to simply understand how CBT treatment works."
Unless...he managed to figure out a way to manifest and build the perfect reality.
That can't be...
"Is that what Azathoth is supposed to do? All I have been making is infinite snacks in the palm of my hand."
"If that Maruki is anywhere resembling me then that's just incorrect," Maruki denies again- just as he always did whenever it came to such a topic. The worst part? He doesn't know why he's defending that Maruki in the first place- judging from the reactions that he illicits in that Ren but still-!
His eyelids droop as he fidgets with his curly hair, running his gloved digits on the back of his head as he tries to connect the dots. "That wouldn't...that doesn't make sense. If that Maruki is anything like I am I would make sure everyone can do what they want- happily."
"You know...this shadow, right?" He tries as he carefully looks at Kasumi with a serious gaze. "Are you saying I maybe capable of reversing it?" Then he stops and his eyes widen for a moment. "Hold on-!"
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