Title: Escaping Aoba Ward
Summary: Kazuo’s freaking out! Aoba’s gone mad! And on the way out, Kazuo runs into someone he doesn’t know—one Junpei Iori.
Who: Kazuo Yuudai, Junpei Iori.
Location: Sumaru — Aoba Ward
Located towards the eastern end of Sumaru before the expansions out into the sea, Aoba is a commercial district where many people with desk jobs end up working. Many corporate HQs can be found here, making it a busy place to be at all hours of the day.
It often seems as though this part of town never actually sleeps, casting an eternal pink-ish haze of light pollution across the shopping centers, high rises, and even the local TV station headquarters. A small park off to the side, too, often sees use through the concert hall erected within. Aoba Drive feels like it, too, keeps its doors open through nearly every hour of the day. It is so bright here that it is all but impossible to see the night sky when it is dark.
Many people gather around these parts to exchange interesting things they've heard while going about their business, be it shopping or otherwise.
Sumaru is a city of rumors, but it is here where many of them get spread like wildfire. If you hear something here, there is a great chance its true origins lie somewhere within Aoba.
Augh. Gunshots. Blood. People disappearing into freaking thin air.
Weird stuff is happening in Sumaru again!
If he knew the place, this might not be so surprising. But aside from his own Persona—and finding out that several other people he knows have them as well—he’s never really experienced anything this weird!
So right now, after being let loose from the grip of the police and/or news-teams that were on the scene questioning people, Kazuo is headed right the frag out of Sumaru, and straight back HOME. And he’s not watching where he’s going, either.....
And it seems Junpei isn’t really watching where either of them are going himself, because this leads right into him and Kazuo running into each other. Thankfully it’s not likely either of them were going too fast though.
“Woah, sorry dude,” the goateed third year apologizes, “You ok?” Of course he’d somehow missed out on what happened earlier and has no idea at the moment that Kazuo’d just been involved in anything, so it’s just an innocent question because of the bumping.
“Oof.”
Soft sound, and Kazuo stumbles back slightly, more from the surprise than from the actual impact. He looks a little...alarmed, though, as he looks up finally, seeing Junpei. As if he thought Junpei was someone else. Or maybe...someTHING else? Suddenly the question of if the other fellow is okay might take on a new shade.
He sees that it’s a normal person, or at least he looks like one, and sighs, as if relieved. “Ah...s-sorry about that. Was trying to get outta here, and I didn’t see you,” he replied. “Some crap just hit the ventilation system in the Aoba Ward, and I think someone got killed. Whole place went nuts, and I’m still freaked out over it.”
Junpei winces slightly. “Ah, damn, that’s no good,” he decides as he rubs at the back of his head. If he knew Kazuo better he’d have added some amount of lament about not having BEEN there. Seeing as they don’t know each other though, saying that would make him look like some sick person.
“Sorry to hear that man, it gets insane sometimes out in these parts,” he states, “Like where I’m from, it’s seriously dangerous to be out at night. This’ll probably sound weird since you could probably kick something’s ass better than I could, but you sure you don’t need any help getting home after that?”
Maybe Kazuo’s not as different as Junpei thinks. Because his first reply to Junpei’s opinion of the situation is, “If whoever it was hadn’t knocked out the lights, there may have been something the rest of us could have done. But something blew up, people panicked, and....” He stops there. No need to rehash the creepy goings-on.
There’s something else that stops him too...resonance. From Junpei? He blinks, and then does something odd—he tilts his head back, as if he’s...scenting the air? That’s kinda weird. But he doesn’t say anything about it.
Fact, when he tilts his head down, he nods. “Well...no sense in going back over it. The police already got my story. Can’t stand getting waylaid by police....”
“Yeah, seriously,” Junpei murmurs in agreement, “‘Specially since the police usually don’t know much about what’s going on.” That said he raises a brow. Oh hey, this guy has a resonance doesn’t he? He’s not all that hot at sensing them clearly, but he’d be able to get a hint at this for sure. Problem is it still doesn’t let him know the guy’s situation so he’s still not quite comfortable discussing the more shush shush details.
“...Yeah, you seem a bit too distracted to walk home alone like this,” the guy in the cap decides, “I don’t wanna seem creepy since you don’t know me or anything...but I don’t want to let you just go off and accidentally walk in front of a car or something.”
Kazuo nods. “Yeah...quite honestly? I, uhh...don’t think the police are gonna be able to do much here,” he agrees. Though he doesn’t exactly say why. But he does sound pretty confident in his assessment of the situation, from his perspective....
Now Kazuo suddenly looks sheepish when his distracted state is mentioned. “Ah. Yeah. Sorry about that.” He doesn’t seem offended, or all that put off by Junpei’s statement. “I live in Inaba, though, and if you’re here, I can assume you live here. And that’s...kinda out of the way, isn’t it?”
“I live out in Port Island actually,” Junpei replies, “I tend to wander around a lot at night...usually stick to my own city but, then there’s times like today.” He waves a hand dismissively. “It’s no big deal for me, dude.”
Of course what he doesn’t point out is that he’s also used to having to do far less pleasant jobs of leading people around. Due to that, helping Kazuo out will be even LESS of a big deal.
“Oh.” It’s a simple response. Though probably lackluster. But hey, Kazuo’s not thinking real good. As evidenced by the fact that he literally ran into Junpei. If Junpei had been a car, Kazuo would have been hurting real bad, as was pointed out. So. Aid accepted!
Kazuo nods, and offers a half-smile. “...Well. I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” he concedes. Hey, Kazuo! Introduce yourself, don’t be rude! “Oh! My name’s Kazuo Yuudai. You?”
Junpei offers a hand and grins. “I’m Junpei Iori, nice to meetcha Kazuo,” he replies, “I’ll just keep ya company long enough to make sure you make it somewhere safe in one piece. You sound like you really had it rough tonight, so you could probably use the company anyway,” he adds.
Kazuo ordinarily doesn’t shake hands. Too informal a way of greeting someone, and he just doesn’t like getting that familiar with people he’s just met. But maybe it’s that he’s put off his guard slightly by the events that happened. Or maybe Junpei’s informality is just what he needs right now.
Regardless, he returns the handshake with a handshake rather than his customary bow. “Pleased to meet you,” he offers honestly.
“Well. Just not used to all this weird stuff happening,” Kazuo replies. “It’s really not anything, I’m just kinda worried about if news reports have gotten out to Inaba yet. I left my phone at home, so my dad’s probably having a fit if he knows something happened out this way.”
If there’s one thing Junpei isn’t it’s formal. ...there’s also other things like socializing without looking like a creep or a loser. Junpei seems to think like he’s everyone’s friend as soon as he says ‘hi’, as long as there isn’t some obvious reason it can’t work out that way. Though, something about his general disposition changes slightly upon Kazuo’s last comment. However, with how distracted the guy is he probably misses it anyway.
“Oh, yeah...your family’s probably flipping out if they heard that,” he agrees, “But we’ll make sure you get home in one piece.”
Yeah, Kazuo’s not exactly up to full par right then...short of being slapped in the face, he probably wouldn’t notice a damn thing. How he managed to notice Junpei’s resonance in the first place must have been purely down to either luck, or by virtue of him wanting to make sure nothing else weird came out of God knew where and attack him.
Yeah, that Neko Jack is going to get a good hugging when he gets home. Not that he’d ever admit to such a thing....
“Luckily it’s just me and my dad, so it’s not like I’ll have fifty people trying to hug me at once,” Kazuo notes. Because that would be unpleasant. MORE ruckus is the last thing he needs.
Junpei nods as he walks along with Kazuo. “Yeah, it was just me and my dad before I moved to the dorms too,” he notes, “Now I’ve got all kinds of people living with me and worrying about me and everything. That’d be a pain to go back to after something like this...still better than home in my case.”
Junpei stretches out a little. “You guys get along though, right?”
Kazuo nods. “Oh, yeah. My mom...” he stalls a bit, and it’s a moment before he can continue. However, when he does, his voice is calm, so he probably took that moment to compose himself. “...She died when I was ten. And I don’t have any siblings. So it was just us most of the time while I was growing up.” There’s a lot he leaves out of that explanation, though.
“Yeah, my mom’s gone too, guess we’ve got stuff in common,” Junpei notes, “Though I don’t even know what happened with my mom...but I can bet it was to do with my dad...not that he’s a bad guy but...” Junpei shrugs and rubs at the back of his neck. “Well, didn’t mean to go onto a tangent about that.”
“Don’t worry about it, everybody has their problems,” Kazuo replies with a dismissive wave of his hand. He’s not too forthcoming with his own, though. “You seem to be a pretty decent guy, though,” he ventures. “So you turned out all right.” A half-smile.
“Yeah, but man...sometimes I think I should have been born in America,” Junpei replies, “I love those action hero movies they make...and it’d be awesome to be in a movie like that.” “No way that’ll happen with my grades though,” he adds, “Besides I’ve got important stuff to take care of here.”
Kazuo raises an eyebrow. “I’m sure being a movie star’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” he offers. “I mean...always having somebody else tell you what to do and how to do it, having to do movies you don’t really want to do because you’re contractually obligated, having everybody hang onto the slightest little thing you do wrong all the time....” He shakes his head. “Definitely not something I’d want to do. I have that happen enough with the Inaba police.” Smirk.
“Yeah...you do got a point there,” Junpei agrees, “It’d be even better to be the REAL thing anyway.” “Be out there kicking butt and saving people,” he murmurs, “Being a real hero...” He tilts his head some though. “You seem to have trouble with the cops a lot,” he realizes, “It just one of those things about how you look or something?”
With a shake of his head, Kazuo replies, “Being a real hero would be even more dangerous. What if bad guys find out who you are? They’ll go after your family. And you can’t be everywhere at once. Plus, everybody would still hang onto every time you failed.”
This guy’s just a ball of sunshine, ain’t he?
“The way I look? Nah, I’m a trouble-maker.” Kazuo shrugs. “Ask the Inaba police—I got at least one of those biker gangs scared of me. Or trying to figure out a way to get me back, one of the two.”
“A trouble maker,” Junpei wonders, “Eh, you don’t really seem like the bad sort so far... Having the cops after you doesn’t mean much either way...heck the cops get on my case sometimes,” he notes.
Kazuo smirks. “Thanks. That means more than you might think.” A soft snort of laughter. “Being hassled by cops is a waste of time. I could be spending that time elsewhere. But no...had something to do with an incident that happened about two years ago. Got jumped by a gang, and I fought ‘em off.” He conveniently doesn’t mention how he did this, notably.
Walking, and chatting along the way, the two end up at the Okina station. “Well. I can probably catch that next train to Inaba if I hurry.” He looks to Junpei and half-smiles. “Thanks, I’m calmed down now. I think I can manage from here.” He offers a wave. “See you later.” And he hurries to the counter to buy a ticket on the next Inaba-bound train.
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