[ well!! after the trial, ichiro vanishes for a while. eventually, though, he finds his way to the library, and he's walking in a beeline for the moonbucks, his hood up, hand shoved in his pockets. after a moment of conversation, he steps away from the moonbucks with some napkins shoved into his pocket and a cup of what looks like straight up ice in his hand, then goes to sit at one of the tables, and dumps some other stuff out of his pockets - a roll of bandages, a little pair of scissors.
enough watching will reveal that he's doing this because the knuckles on his right hand are all bloody and scratched up. wonder why that happened!
No it's complete chance that he notices Ichiro, and then after wandering over out of curiosity, he notices The Situation and at that point runs at full tilt over to him.]
[ this surprises him - it doesn't seem like ichiro was paying much attention to the world around him. he looks up at tsyukusa, and then down at his hand. ]
I - [ a pause, and he just ruffles his other hand through his own hair, scrubbing his face and taking a deep breath. ] It's fine, Tsuyukusa. I did it. I'm fine.
he - stops, at that look? and then snorts, shakes his head, and taps his knuckles. ] This. I mean this. I punched the wall a couple times. I did that to myself.
Yeah, well. We convicted somebody of a crime who didn't do shit today, so I was feeling dumb.
[ that comes out of his mouth before he's really ready for it to, almost snapped - a marked difference from the calm big brother of earlier today, and ichiro stops himself, shaking his head and taking a deep breath. in, then out. calm down. calm down. ]
I - yeah. I did. Sorry. It's... it's been a long day.
[ he sighs, eventually, and lifts his leg under the table to nudge the other chair out in tsuyukusa's direction. come on, sit. ] Sorry I had to check on your arm, again. I didn't see anything. And being thorough didn't get us much, either.
It's fine, you were... I mean, you were reasonable about it. It's not like... I mean, I know everyone had one, but mine... I was just worried people would think I'm more expendable.
You're not expendable. [ that answer comes almost immediately, ichiro's head snapping up to look at him. ] You're a living person.
[ that's half the issue with this goddamn place, with these stupid trials. with voting for someone innocent like that. ] Anyone who thinks that can face me before they think twice about trying something on you.
[He frowns a little, did that bitch tell other people this!!]
Right. Some of the people in Amatsuki have real bodies in Higan, but some people are only a part of the "fake" world in Amatsuki. [Himself included.]
For all we know, this place could be like Amatsuki in that way. It would explain a lot, like how I'm here. If someone found that out... [Well, what's the big deal killing somone who's just an NPC?]
[A flicker of annoyance passes over his face. He's going to kill Kon? Anyway.]
... I figured you'd say so, that's why I showed you. [Though he's covering it back up now in case someone else walks in.] But someone else might think different.
Anyway, yeah, that seems plausible. But without an unwritten page on our side there's not a whole lot we can do if this place really is like Amatsuki.
[ don't they had this same "you're a nerd right" conversation. incredible. ]
Yeah, well. [ grumpy ] Someone else's gonna have to get through me, first. [ HUFFY!!!! he is very, very protective of people and this is no exception. tsuyukusa has shown ichiro a little of vulnerability. ichiro yamada will now die for you. ]
Dunno what that is, but there's no reason we can't try and find it. Or maybe this world works differently.
Not technically, anyway. The unwritten page was a person who wasn't part of Heaven's Net, so he couldn't be controlled by the world of Amatsuki. Anyone else who tried to go against Heaven's Net would just get overwritten. That's what happened to my brother, with Teiten taking his powers away.
... Well, c'mon. Don't give up on it that fast. [ ichiro can't be pessimistic about something like that. if anything, having a name for something like that helps contextualize. ] If it exists, that means there's a way we can figure out how to handle it here.
I mean... you've noticed, right? It's kinda like that's what's happening to the dorm heads. But none of us are being "overwritten". Compulsed to do shit, maybe, but I'm still me, you're still you.
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