00:00:01

[playingdetective]

Characters: Akise Aru, anyone else
Setting: Any hallway with a fair degree of people
Format: Either
Summary: Akise detectives the hell out of this situation (?).

"This is new... She really didn't take it well."

Akise is far more intrigued by this turn of events than any normal person has a right to be.

It's not like this is the first he's ever heard of the supernatural. Frankly, after infuriating Murumuru to such a degree, he expected something to happen. He just didn't foresee it to be in such a passive-agressive manner. It doesn't take a lifetime of being near his former accomplice to decipher her personality. He expected her to eliminate him in some way. Erasing him or deleting his memories are unconventional choices, but fully within her scope of power.

He did not expect to come out of it as the owner of the diary he's had for a few days now. Yukiteru needs this to stand a chance as First. Why did she not take it away...?

'The tower's freezing.', it says plainly, as if Akise is already familiarized with his predicament. It's a useful piece of information, given how it tells him that he's in such a structure in the first place, but a diary that talked about what happened to him would be so much more useful in this situation. Then again, that would hardly encourage cultivating his skills as a detective.

And yet, that doesn't bring him down. Not in the least. Matter of fact, Akise looks cheerful, navigating the halls in an attempt to feed his diary information on events he's yet to witness. He reviews the contents at five minute intervals, having noticed a large absence of electronics in this place. If there are others here, he considers, then that does not support his theory that this is a personal punishment. Even stranger is the fact that, for the first time since he's received it, his diary seems to be malfunctioning, neglecting to show events at times.

I wonder if the others are here. It sounds unlikely, since Murumuru and him were the only anomalies, but it would be a problem if she had done away with the other diary owners after he changed their futures to such a degree.

Comments

[playingdetective]

[The question catches him off-guard. The fact that Tsubaki has been here for weeks, even though they just saw each other a few hours ago, even more. And yet, after combining both of those things with Murumuru's situation back home, another theory begins to form. Akise allows himself to mull over the question, not because the last few days have been uneventful, but because there's too much to review. Really, where do you stop? Having a shirt and tie already, he decides to take said delay to slip off his jacket.]

[...Huh. That is cold. Regardless, he extends it to Tsubaki, along with an answer.]

Funatsu has been exposed. He will pay for his crimes. We were with everyone just outside the cult grounds before being taken here.

[He may have omitted a part or two at the end there, in the interest of seeing if she remembers all of it.]

[redlikeflowers]

[ Her eyes (eye?) widen a bit, but graciously takes it and hangs it around her shoulders. It was a bit hard to put a jacket on with sleeves that wide, so she settles for something else. ]

Thank you. [ A pause. ] Eh...? You're...a bit behind, in that case.

[ She actually takes a moment to tuck her hair out of her eyes. ]

I don't know what you've explored or searched so far, but please be careful.

[playingdetective]

I will. Don't worry about me, Tsubaki-san.

[It's not being reckless when you know you'll succeed, right?]

Time... works differently here, doesn't it? At first, I thought this was part of the survival game, but between the letter and all the people from different times here, I'm starting to have my doubts.

[redlikeflowers]

[ She frowns, but says no more on the first issue. ]

That's the conclusion I've come to. There's far too many people here who have never heard of such things, some who don't even have anything supernatural or preternatural in their worlds, some who have even more.

[ A pause. ]

First is here, though I don't know about the others.

Sorry about the delay! On a trip.

[playingdetective]

[Akise nods, as if already expecting those news.]

The game won't continue with even a single one of us missing. It would be like tracing a drawing with a part of the page ripped out.

[He's given this point of view many metaphors in his head, you will notice.]

It would be better if they weren't taken to a place like this, but for the time being, they should be safe.

[redlikeflowers]

I doubt it would have continued back home, regardless, with six of its players refusing to move forward. [ So, that's not really a concern of hers. Maybe. It's a bit of a relief to not have to worry about getting diced from behind, here, but she still wonders if her Diary could be used to kill her. Oh, well. It's staying locked up in her trunk for now. No one let her know about the Space Whale incident. It wasn't even working...

A slight pause before she continues. ]

How up to speed have you been brought? There's quite a boatload of information on this place, vital and trivial.

[playingdetective]

I saw Yukiteru-kun some time ago, but he wasn't able to speak very clearly. I did figure out we may not necessarily have the same experiences, though. The diary's told me we're in a tower, but apart from that... nothing.

For our purposes, I think it's safe to say you're the resident Tower Expert in this room, Tsubaki-san.

[He almost sounds dismayed at how unproductive his search for an administrator has been, but he's not disappointed. After all, relying on the help of your friends just like they do with yours is something any detective should be comfortable with. He's not ashamed to admit crazy nightmare-towers are out of his realm of expertise, but he's more than willing to work with Tsubaki to overcome it.]