"Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, let's eat."

The charismatic general in the war against job-killing service automatons leaned forward and perused the menu with a brief once over. She was quite familiar with the range of options at Daisuke's particular McDonald's, so she didn't want to waste much devoted time to things she already knew, but she was feeling peckish - and it wouldn't do to order something only to be told it wasn't available.

And if DRU started feeling sad, she could store some of her food inside it. Once it tasted the perfectly salted, crisped to perfection, ever-so-oily golden fingers of God that could be peddled for merely a couple hundred yen in one of several sizes and varieties, it would never think back on its pizza-slinging days with anything but revulsion.

"I'll have two California Burgers," she ordered, a shocking twist atop an already tumultuous day coming from a girl who could count the number of MCDonald's burgers she'd eaten on one hand. "With large fries and two Cokes. I also want three large fries, two orders of the McChocolate Potatoes...and a large Coke."

She looked to the remaining students in her car.

"You guys can go ahead now."

Rena took the time to think it over, to be honestly she was about to denied. I mean honestly when the supportive chosen ones fail then what chance does do they have. Been then the tiny girl who got burned like bacon yesterday decide she was going to help Yamamoto-kun save his friend. This girl Senhime-chan...She owned her for helping Aki-kun. To let her fight this battle alone would be a disgrace to her family name. Saying no wasn't an opinion. "Fine i'll join but that doesn't mean i will forgive you. I'm only joining cause i owned Senhime-chan for helping Aki." Rena told him.

School Side (Saturday Morning - 11am) - NPC: Kaede Yamamoto

"I've never been good at tennis in the first place," replied Kaede with a bitter smile, the haggard boy barely phased by the hostile appearance of Rena's Persona or the quiet antipathy being directed towards him. He couldn't muster the energy to respond to that treatment, nor was it unwarranted in the first place. If only he had been quicker at stopping his club members, then maybe they wouldn't have all been standing here right now.

His clouded blue gaze swept across the gathered group of teenagers. He didn't know if that had been all of those who had followed after him, but ... that was enough. They shouldn't have needed to come along. It was his responsibility, but ... his fists clenched at his sides. If those things from yesterday had been any indication of the obstacles in his path, then he couldn't do it alone.

He needed help.

He needed to save his friends.

"I guess you all know what I want to ask," he said softly, "but let me say it anyway."

And the only way for him to do so was with others.

"Please help me save my club."

Jin exhaled quietly. There it was; the plea hung in the air. They'd known Kaede was going to ask that very thing. Jin didn't have to show up, could have spent the morning in bed, and yet...

"...I'll do it." Quietly crumpling a fast food wrapper in their hand, Jin stood up in one swift motion. "I might not know you, but I know what it means to stick up for your gang. So I'll help." They shrugged and smirked, the old gangster arising in their expression and pose. "Besides, someone's got to kick all the ass, and it may as well be me. I've faced worse odds and creepier shit, so if you want someone who'll look the devil in the face and laugh, I'm your man."

Sakura didn't move from behind the wall, but her eyes over the scarf did take on a harder glint as Jin agreed to help the Drama Club President.

"Whatever happened back... there, Those things tried to hurt my f-friend." She said, "If Jin is going, I won't stay behind. This time, I'll be prepared." Finally stepping out from behind her cover, Sakura revealed what she had been concealing in her right hand. Six feet of lacquered wood, capped at both ends with iron, shone in the morning sunlight. She held the weighted staff loosely but firmly, swinging it up and around, rotating it once, and ending with it clenched in both hands across her body.

"I'm stronger than I look, and Jin has always been a better shot than me. If we have to fight again, let me take the front lines." The scarf that had been covering her face before had slipped, revealing a determined set to her jaw. If she noticed her lack of cover, she didn't give any outward sign of it. It seemed an entirely different person had taken her place.

@chukklehed@Mistress Dizzy@demonspade64@Suku@banjoanjo

School Side (Saturday Morning - 11am) - NPC: Kaede Yamamoto

Three firm declarations of support, one reluctant, and one outright refusal. The haggard boy took in a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly as he did so. There were people willing to join his quest to rescue his friends, people willing to shoulder a burden that should have been his and his alone. Maybe it should have made him feel something like happiness or fulfilment or guilt or anything, but there was none of that. There was only hollow relief settling into the bleak, uncomfortable pit of his stomach. They would be following him into that ... that hell again, all because he asked.

Kaede opened his eyes once more, their blue clouded with emotions. "Thanks," he said, the ghost of a smile flitting onto his pale, pallid skin.

The possibility of rescuing his friends had grown. With their combined power, they could take out the obstacles in their path.

They had to. He needed to make sure that his friends could all be saved, no matter what.

He needed to.

His bespectacled gaze found its way to Akihito. Kaede didn't know the other boy that well, so it didn't really surprise him that much that there was a refusal. He could understand why. It was his responsibility, after all, not the other's. There was no obligation for Akihito to care for his friends at all.

But he needed the power his classmate possessed.

"Is it impossible for you to reconsider?" was his quiet question. It hung in the air between them, waiting.

She’s doing it because of me. Because I was stupid enough to get hurt.

Aki turned to Rena with a sense of dread as the girl announced her resolve. All his other classmates had displayed the same determination. When the hell did they get so strong? Even Sakura, even Senhime of all people, had more courage than Aki could ever dream of.

He grit his teeth. He already knew how pathetic he really was. That was nothing new. What made the ordeal so much worse was how he saw how everyone else had changed. How they’d become so much better than whatever the hell he was. If they could do it, surely an ass like him could do the same, right?

Oh, please.

“I don’t want to repeat myself, Yamamoto-kun,” Aki responded coldly, “You’ve already got a team of five, including yourself. I don’t see any reason to throw my life on the line again.”

Aki paused. Fucking coward.

“The answer’s still no.”

Arina Mifune – Shikatsu – Sasoris Van

“Uhh….”

Arina never had been a fan at eating at McDonalds especially with the stuff they put into their food. Though it had been a while she has eaten.

She sighed, A Guilty Pleasure

“One Big Mac combo. The soda will be a sprite and add two McChickens…with ranch sauce.“

She looked to the others. “I’m done.”

Jin blinked several times at Sakura, their expression going from 'street tough' to 'lovestruck teen' in an instant. "Whoa, Sakura-chan, you... whoa." Jin cleared their throat, and tried to focus. "On the subject of weapons... Don't ask me where I got this, I won't tell you, don't ask me if it's legal, it's better if you don't have a direct answer, but-" In Jin's bag, beneath some more food was what looked like a heavy duty sling and a bunch of metallic balls.

"If anyone needs something rigged up, just tell me. I'm getting pretty good at it, and my aunt and uncle are just glad I have a hobby that keeps me out of trouble." With a wicked smile, Jin loaded the sling with one ball, set their eyes on a tree branch, exhaled and pulled back, hard. The ball flew and the branch cracked like it had been shot.

"...well, at least it keeps me happy."

@banjoanjo@chukklehed@Suku@Mistress Dizzy@demonspade64

School Side (Saturday Morning - 11am) - NPC: Kaede Yamamoto

"That power of yours ... it could do something."

He was asking for Akihito to follow him into the depths of that realm again. A selfish request to save his friends, to do the duty he himself should have done. It was entirely understandable why the other boy was refusing, but when the rest had all chosen to support him in his endeavour, that single refusal stood out. He had no right to pressure his classmate. He should have felt something beyond the dispassionate relief that had settled in his stomach. Yet he didn't, because he wanted, no, needed, the power in Akihito's hands.

A deep breath.

He had been powerless to save his friends. He had been too late, too incapable to do anything. Now the others had offered their support, and a modicum of control had seemingly returned to his world. A lifeline leading out of that darkness where he just couldn't save them. The more power he could amass in his quest, the more certain that success seemed.

The more likely it was for him to rescue his club.

When his blue eyes, dull and barely energised, stared at Akihito, he did not see the other boy.

Kaede saw Oogami.

He saw Hanazawa.

He saw Sasaki.

He saw Okazaki.

He saw the faces of those he n͏͟͞eé͘͞d̴͘͠e̸ḑ ̧̛t̨o͠ ̸̧s͝à̸̛vȩ̢͝.

"Come with us, Irimi-san."

He was tired. He was exhausted. But he still could plead.

They had become a part of his life before he even knew it. He didn't know what he would do, knowing that he had failed to stop them from becoming trapped in that monstrous reality. He would give everything for them. Everything.

Kaede Yamamoto descended to his knees.

No anguish filled his heart.

He pressed his hands against the cold, rocky ground.

No shame bubbled through his veins.

His forehead submitted to the floor. It hurt, but the pain was dull already.

Bringing himself to commit dogeza ... what would they think of him now?

Jin took a look at the kneeling Yamamoto and scowled fiercely. They strode forward and gripped him by the arm. "Get up, dammit. Don't push your face in the dirt for him." Jin's fist was clenched, but their face was burning with secondhand embarrassment. The fact that they didn't know Yamamoto all that well to begin with didn't seem to matter.

"Listen, Yamamoto-san." Jin continued to try to pull the kneeling boy up. "You don't beg, alright? What we're about to face, there's not going to be any time for pleading or bargaining or none of that shit. You pick a path, you take that path - if that path is a dead end, you don't sit and weep about it." Ironic - Jin seemed to be looking a bit teary. "Besides, the last person you want at your back in a fight is a coward." Jin shot a pointed look at Aki. "Let him go and get up - you're worth ten of him anyway."

Aki watched passively as the boy in front of him placed his head to the ground. Dogeza, an act of complete submission. This went beyond desperation. Seeing Yamamoto act so hopeless, so goddamn pathetic sent something through Aki.

Bliss.

He felt powerful by bringing a man to his knees with mere sentences. By being above someone, no, by being needed by someone. His choices mattered now. They had incredible repercussions. With Yamamoto’s pleas for help, Aki held actual lives in his hands. He held strength in his words. And he could use it however he liked.

He had felt strength that day too. When Metis had released a surge of wind at those Shadows, he felt almost unstoppable in his determination. But it had been stripped away in an instant, the excruciating burns being a reminder that he really was nothing. His life could be swept away with the flick of a monster’s hideous appendage. In that dark place, he was nothing.

But up here where the sun still shone, where there were people he could still twist with sugary facades and hidden agendas, that was the only place he had any sort of influence.

The Drama Club could, WOULD rot in that hell. And Aki wouldn’t care less.

He wished it were that simple.

"The last person you want at your back in a fight is a coward."

And all at once the heady rush he was feeling was washed away in a torrent of shame.

What was he even thinking? Being important? Strength? What the fuck was it worth if it was a product of cowardice?

Aki took a shaky step back as Takahashi tried to pull the beggar to his feet.

He was being just like before. He had learnt nothing from the dungeon. These lies, this falsely earned power…

Aki wanted to cackle out loud.

Earned? POWER? Those words had no meaning. He had no meaning. He was nothing. And being nothing was worse than death. Aki was lower than every sort of inadequacy Yamamoto would ever show in his lifetime.

“I…” Aki’s voice was barely louder than a whisper, like even his voice was conveying the weakness he truly held, “I’ll go. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Aki didn’t budge from his spot as he awaited Yamamoto’s response, his shrivelled posture a clear indication of his fear and self-loathing.

"Stand up you asked for help and help was denied no matter what happens you should never show weakness." Senhime said her voice soft yet it still held a a iron will within it. She wasnt the bravest of people but she did have her pride she would not bow down to someone who doesnt care what happens to others. Still she supposed in the long run that it mattered little to what her own thoughts and actions was at times it was often overlooked due to who she was still she needed to change that start asserting herself more that was what she learned. "So please stand up and dont let this person drag you down." She said once more looking at Yamamoto's spot where he bowed before Aki she understood how he wished to save his friends she understood that but to lower yourself so much? that she had a hard time understanding.

"I'll just take a Big Mac." After a few moments of thought, and another look down at himself, Daisuke added; "And a large Coke. Need to wash down some more aspirin."

@banjoanjo@chukklehed@Suku@Mistress Dizzy@demonspade64

School Side (Saturday Morning - 11am) - NPC: Kaede Yamamoto

Weakness. The word echoed through his mind, even as he rose from the pathetic kowtow. It was true that he had been weak, lacking the power to save his friends from their horrible fates. It was why he needed the power everybody else possessed, so that he could triumph over his own weaknesses and rescue his club. It was a selfish desire, and the reassurances that were sent his way nearly made him choke out a ragged laugh. They were good people, willing to throw their weight and strength behind a cause that should have been his and his alone, willing to find worth in somebody who could never be worthy.

Maybe, once, he too would've had pride to lose. He once would never have thought to beg. But his friends, the people he had failed, needed his help. Needed somebody - somebody stronger than him - to save them. For them, there was nothing he would not do. Even if it cost him everything else.

"Thank you," he whispered as he found himself on his feet once more, yet his drained voice was still audible to them all.

The haggard boy pushed his bitter smile away, doing his best to instead display a warm smile (fake, glassy) towards Jin. They had chosen to enthusiastically stand by his side without any protest. They were so free with praise. They were a good person.

He hated having to rely on them, but he wanted, needed their power. He needed to concentrate them all against whatever obstacle stood in the path of him and his friends. It would have been simpler if he had not required the assistance of these good people.

Life wasn't like that.

"We'll have to go to the clock tower," Kaede continued spiritlessly, glancing past the gate between them and the courtyard. "I ... I don't really know what to say, but ..."

He hesitated.

"Thank you again."

It was time to go.

@Krayzikk@Ayazi@Plank Sinatra

City Side - NPC: Sasori Yoshinori

Given the large amount of chow that had been ordered, the assembled group of teenagers (and Sasori Yoshinori, unmarried thirty-one year old private detective) were told to wait in the carpark until everything was done. It was a bit of extra dime on the shamus' part, but if the kiddos had top wire, then he'd take a lounge in the flivver Toyota HiAce for as long as necessary. Havin' good jobbies around would certainly lead him to the lettuce.

"Well ya chew's 'ere now," noted the man casually, having popped out to grab the purchased bags just a bit earlier before returning to hand them over to the kids. "Dig in, don't spill any joe."