Reverse Tarot - shinjuku

Officially, Adachi wasn’t supposed to be drinking, but a beer or two couldn’t hurt, right? With the sort of tolerance he had, that barely even got him a buzz. Besides, wasn’t like this was Kirijo business—he was allowed to relax a little. Would have preferred a bar with a prettier bartender to go along with his drinks, but Crossroads had become one of his go-tos, considering how Lala-chan didn’t try to bother him when he didn’t want it. Not to mention some of the info she had about the area, especially rumors that were being spread that could relate to his own work. Stories she told could just be hoaxes, but, nine times out of ten, there was at least some truth to it, and more often than not it seemed to lead directly back to some sort of stupid otherworldly shit that he had to take care of. When he’d casually brought up any mentions of catastrophe as of late, though, there wasn’t much that Lala-chan could offer. So much for any sort of leads… Then again, the fact there wasn’t that much shit going down despite Sho-kun’s claims made it all the more suspicious. Usually, worlds like that meant constant trouble, but it seemed the general public wasn’t constantly getting dragged into a frenzy over it all. Jeez, this was just getting stranger by the minute… Whatever. He wasn’t going to worry about it just yet. First, the kid needed to get his ass down there so they could actually check it out before jumping to any conclusions. (edited)

Crossroads— it wasn't a place that Sho had been all too familiar with, but he'd been around the block enough to know where the place was just off of Adachi mentioning it by name. Though, there were a few points on the way over where the redhead wondered if he'd walked down the right street. When he reached his destination this time around, he made a mental note that the bar was to the right from where that fortune teller lady was camped out, not the left. Said fortune teller was kind enough to give him those directions, and even if it might make him a little later, he figured he'd shell out the 5,000 yen for the reading she offered anyway. Least he could do in return, right? Not to mention, tarot readings were plenty useful to someone into the sort of things that Sho had been. In this case though, the reading he'd gotten didn't exactly tell him anything he wasn't aware of. Without saying it word-for-word, it basically boiled down to "shit's going to get real, prepare yourself". After he'd thanked the lady and started off towards Crossroads, his mind flashed back to the sight he'd been greeted with when he entered that other world for the first time— that crimson sky. At the time, he'd been distracted by his sudden wardrobe change, but that was probably for the best; the similarity to the whole situation he'd perpetrated himself years ago, however small, was… unsettling, to say the least. He couldn't deny that the P-1 Climax was an important part of shaping him into the man he was today, but that didn't mean the pain associated with that day had suddenly vanished. It wasn't something he could ever look back on fondly, but he didn't have much choice today, considering who he was meeting up with. "Complicated" was a pretty light term for the history Sho shared with Tohru Adachi, but at least it was safe to say he trusted the guy in spite of it all— and hopefully vice versa.

8:05 AM

He at least trusted him enough to have his back, if their planned investigation would end up leading them to the Metaverse. "Yo," He called out to the man as he'd entered the bar, taking a moment to look around before he sat on the stool next to Adachi's. "Nice place. You sure it's a good idea to be bar hoppin' before an investigation, though? Wouldn't be good if you could bar-ley stand against the Shadows, would it?" A beat of silence passed, where Sho bit the inside of his cheek. "...yeah, I gotta think on that one a lil' more. Anyway, how's Kirijo treatin' ya? Got any juicy top-secret info that could help us out here?" Of course, Sho wouldn't put it past the Shadow Operatives if it just so happened that they weren't that on top of things here– they sure as hell hadn't been when he'd faced off with them all those years ago.

Despite Sho-kun's detours, Adachi had somehow found the restraint to not get completely piss drunk out of boredom. In fact, he was still on his first drink, lazily scrolling through the mysterious chat room while he sipped away. Most of it was mundane bullshit he honestly couldn't give any sort of emotion towards given the situation—disappearances (of a kid who was definitely Hanamura-kun), investigations, mysterious messages, a lot of obnoxious emojis—there was a lot, but also abso-fucking-lutely nothing, all things considered. Whatever. Wasn't like he needed much of it. Unlike these people, it seemed he already had a bit more of a basis for what was going on. Same with the redhead that came bursting through the front door, already chatting up one hell of a storm only a few moments after stepping in. "Chill out." With the way the ice clinked against the cup as he pushed a margarita towards Sho, it was clear the pun was at least semi-intended. Not that he paid it much mind, continuing on with little fanfare. "I'm not planning to get drunk off my ass here—You better not, either." Contradictions were Adachi's forte, considering the way he almost immediately went for a swig from his beer afterwards, only bringing the glass down once Sho-kun had started to throw out a couple questions. They weren't particularly hard, but Adachi already knew the kid wouldn't be thrilled with what he had to offer. "They wouldn't be leaving me in the dark if they had any damn clue." At least, he thought they wouldn't, especially not with something like the P-1 Climax of all things. If there was anything Adachi was hired on to deal with, it was shit like this. They wouldn't keep him out of shit like this, yeah? "Usually they're pretty open with me about shit, even if I'm just an attack dog."

9:19 AM

Attack dog might not have been the exact right term, but it certainly felt like they had him restrained by a leash at times. Sure, they'd let him go from Iwatodai to Tokyo for the first time in years, but, like most trips, it was all just for work. Besides, he was sure there were still people in suits and sunglasses keeping an eye on him. Granted, he could have just been paranoid after how long they'd kept him under surveillance, but there was never a true escape from them—he was the Kirijo Group’s pet for the rest of his life. "I asked around, but there's not much about any of this bullshit seepin' into reality." Adachi's proper accent had begun to slip, annoyance letting the facade fall slightly into a more natural dialect that matched Sho's. The last person he had to worry about keeping up appearances with was the kid, for better or worse. Probably the latter, all things considered. "I guess that's one good thing, but if I had to place my bets, that ain't going to last." At times like these, his past life as a detective shined through. Not that he was the absolute best in class—well, not towards the end, at least—but he was quick to pick up information and form his own hypotheses on the spot. Guess that was at least one good thing he picked up from Dojima-san, as much as he didn't want to admit it. …Why was he thinking about that now? It wasn't exactly the time to be patting himself on the back for basic detective skills—there was a lot more they had to get through, preferably sooner rather than later. Before asking his next question, his eyes met with Sho-kun's, making sure the other understood the course of their discussion. Not that it was exactly necessary, but he wanted to cut through the jokey bullshit and get straight to the point with his next question. "What's your take?" A vague question, but both of them should have known exactly what he meant by now. "You're not stupid enough to have no clue, right?"

9:19 AM

That was almost a compliment, depending on how someone looked at it. A rarity from a guy like Adachi—Though, if Sho failed to meet his (admittedly somewhat low) expectations, there was gonna be a lot more hell to pay via Adachi's obnoxious teasing.

The answer to his first question had been predictable enough; slacking as always, that Kirijo woman. Their lack of supervision might've served Sho well once upon a time, but nowadays, it was more disappointing than anything, considering they were supposed to be on the same side now. Well, sort of, anyway. Even though his own bad blood towards them had more or less subsided as time went by, that didn't mean he could suddenly picture himself as a Shadow Operative. In fact, he wouldn't have been surprised if he was still on shaky ground with some of the Investigation Team for the events from years back, let alone the Shadow Ops. He wouldn't find it hard to believe at all if one of their prime suspects for this new ordeal happened to be him, even though he'd pretty much just stumbled in on everything. Oh, well. It wasn't like it did him much good to think too hard on that; after all, he didn't much care what they thought of him at this point in his life. Whether or not his former enemies could believe he'd changed since then was up to them. "Yeah, figures as much," He remarked, taking a sip from his margarita. How nice of the grumpy old man to buy him a drink. "Well, I ain't figured out everything yet, obviously. Like I said, I got here pretty late to the party, so I don't have a lot to go off of 'cept for a gut feeling…" Sho directed his gaze into his drink, looking toward the bottom of the glass as he thought back to the circumstances of his arrival."...so far, all I know is somethin' about all this shit rubs me the wrong way. Doesn't help that Yosuke still didn't seem to know a damn thing, even after he got nabbed…" After heaving a sigh, his expression lightened as he turned back to Adachi. "But hey, that's why we're investigatin' this shit, right? So, what're we waitin' for?"

10:46 PM

Since that rescue mission, Sho hadn't yet had another opportunity to explore the depths of that world, and if he was being completely honest with himself, he'd been getting a little anxious over it. Going in there alone might not have been the best idea, but between himself and Adachi, they'd most likely get on just fine, right?

Ugh, of course the punk hadn’t put much thought into anything. Why should Adachi have thought otherwise…? Maybe he did give the kid too much credit, even bringing up one of his major points of suspicion without any deeper thought. The fact Sho made it this far wasn’t brains, that’s for sure… "Wait." The expression he met Sho’s with was much less bright, eyes narrowing in on the kid while he contemplated how to bring up his hunches. One of the kid’s biggest flaws was how quick he was to overlook things, like most of those Investigation Team brats. Sometimes, it worked in his favor, but now it only left him having to do an absurd amount of leg work to make his point clear. "I got something to run by you before we get in there, and I ain't exactly feelin' like sharing it with any prying eyes or ears in that place." Not that he could be sure that anyone would hear them in that world—But, hey, better safe that sorry, right? Lala-chan wasn’t exactly gonna rat out what they were talking about to anyone—Not that she could have even really made sense of it to someone else, anyway. They were much more in the clear hear than in there, and if there was anyone listening in on them on their phone, then… Well, he didn’t really care that much to go throw those things across the room to be extra cautious. "Your friend's suspicious." Even he could recognize just how indefinable that sort of language was, so, much to his own personal annoyance, he quickly went to elaborate before Sho could get the inevitable question in. "Hanamura-kun. Can't say I have much, but after being the target of some sort of some mysterious threat, he disappears, and once he does all these nightmares and headaches people were talking about ain't an issue anymore. Yet he claims the only thing he did was just 'wake up there,' despite that sort of stuff probably not being the cause of some sort of coincidence. If you ask me, that's fishy as hell, ain't it?"

1:59 AM

Wasn't like that was all—The kid was acting strange, even for his standards. They hadn't interacted… Well, ever, after he got turned in. Not directly, at least. But the sort of switch in how Hanamura-kun talked and presented himself seemed to go beyond a bit of growing up. Almost like he reverted, in some ways, with how cold he could be to someone like "Watanabe" someone who Adachi had his own questions on considering his self-proclaimed lack of Persona in a Persona user chat room, although could save for another time not to distract from the most important matter and general tired and dry nature to a lot of things seemed a little more like himself at that age than Hanamura-san. Really, it was a sad sight for sore eyes. Not exactly something Adachi enjoyed reading through—echoes of his past self were never the greatest, all things considered. But, not his problem. He could have just been reading way too much into things. Really, all of his claims seemed that way, but he needed to get them out in the air somehow, and Sho was just about the only person in that whole damn chat he knew he could trust, as pathetic as that was to admit to himself. "Now, I ain't making any big claims on that sorta Metaverse or anything else you're talkin' about." Considering just how little he had to go off of, he really couldn’t even if he wanted to. Still, that definitely had to be stated, considering just how much he was going to reach. "A lot of places have red skies. Hell, my place had red skies and fog. Best connection I'm thinking right now is something related to Izanami—Hi-no-Kagutsuchi clearly plagiarized at least a bit from her, with all that ugly red and obnoxious ass fog. But it ain't got any hold over reality like them, from what I can tell. Wouldn't be surprised if that's the goal, though, followin' in their predecessor's footsteps. Maybe they're even looking for their own vessel to help increase their power over here to pull off that sorta shit."

1:59 AM

Adachi wasn't exactly the only one a deity took over, after all. They were both pawns to a God's scheme given insane power, and when they served their purpose, they were simply thrown out to become some sort of larger, stronger being to eradicate the same brats for good. As obnoxious as it was to think about, it was probably only something the two of them could really understand—and all the more necessary to make it so no one else had to go through that sort of shit. Hell, the way he was making it sound, it was almost like he cared about the kid. Hah… No fucking way he'd ever give a shit about Hanamura-kun. That kid was somehow even more obnoxious than Yu-kun at times, and all the shit that Adachi had done, especially to his oh-so-precious high school sweetheart, meant that things weren't ever gonna be any more than an acquaintanceship, at best. When everything was said and done, and a bit of distance, Adachi could at least recognize why the kid hated him. And, honestly, could he really blame him? He'd matured enough to recognize the true horror of the shit he pulled. The lobby of the Amagi Inn and interrogation room were practically burned into his skull at this point, but even if he explained that, he was sure things would never change on how the kid saw him. …Not the point. He didn't care what that brat thought of him, just like he didn't give a shit about anything else surrounding him. There was no way in hell he ever would—They just has to focus on making sure he didn't fuck up shit for everyone else.

1:59 AM

"I ain't sayin' that this is what's going on," another quick denial of assurity to make sure that Sho wouldn’t hold it against him if anything he said did happen to be way off the mark, "but somehow targeting and taking advantage of someone like Hanamura-kun in reality, who already has a decent Persona and is way too goddamn stupid and selfless for his own good with close connections to some big threats for any sort of deity, and makin' some sorta deal with him to bring that entity from the Metaverse to reality in turn for stopping all that shit for his 'precious friends'? Sounds like a pretty good plan, don't it?" Maybe he was only thinking that because it was the sort of plan he’d do if he were some sort of malevolent being. Sure, he was far past any sort of conniving, but the mindset was still pretty easy to slip into when necessary. Certainly made it easier for him to look at situations from multiple angles compared to his more… Morally white, companions. "I could just be insane." He shrugged to himself, eyes finally turning back down to his bottle as he wrapped his hand around it once again. "But you should probably look into it, just in case. I’m sure ya don't want anyone else going through all that." There he went, phrasing everything like it wasn’t any of his interest. It wasn’t the strongest facade, but he wasn’t going to relent that easily, bringing up the glass to gulp down the rest of his drink before he let on any more than he already had.

The way Sho saw it, this whole situation wasn't something he needed to take all too seriously— he was confident enough that it'd all go smoothly, between the small army of experienced Persona users and wild cards they seemed to have on their side. He'd leave the strategizing to the more critical thinkers, and when the time came, he'd go and carve a pathway through all the Shadows opposing them. Simple enough, right? Apparently not, according to all of what Adachi was presenting him with. As much as the mention of Yosuke being suspicious caused an incredulous raise of Sho's eyebrow, it wasn't like he could exactly deny the ex-detective's reasoning behind the claim. As crazy as it all sounded, maybe Adachi did have a point— at least he did to Sho. The redhead let out a sigh as he took another sip. Maybe he should've taken all of this more seriously from the get-go. If there was some kind of deity behind all this, there was no question somebody in their group was liable to get snatched up into whatever their scheme was. It happened to Adachi, hell, it happened to Sho himself— every damn time, somebody had to play the role of a puppet. Unless it just so happened that Adachi was just pulling his leg, but nowadays, Sho doubted that he had the time or the energy for that sort of thing. If he was going to double-cross anyone, he'd have done it years ago. "Yeah, no shit," Sho chuckled, taking a moment to finish his margarita before standing up. "So insane that you're actually makin' sense. Look, I'll keep my eyes open, but for now, let's just worry 'bout what's going on in the moment, yeah? You comin'?" Despite how nonchalant he sounded, Sho's expression had taken on a more focused determination than he'd had minutes earlier as he turned and headed for the door.

5:39 AM

Keeping a lighthearted and easygoing tone towards everything made the more dire situations easier to approach for Sho, and now more than ever, he needed that to keep himself level-headed. Especially since the idea of someone else being forced through the same shit that he'd been through at the hands of Hi-no-Kagutsuchi made him feel the exact opposite of calm internally. Adachi's theory, even if it wouldn't turn out to be true, served as a decent wake-up call to the gravity of the situation. He couldn't let something like that happen again— least of all to Yosuke, or anyone else from the old Investigation Team for that matter. In his mind, he still owed a bigger debt to them than he could probably ever repay for saving him in spite of all he'd done to them; but, he'd try his best to pay them back regardless. After exiting Crossroads, he briefly looked over his shoulder just to make sure Adachi was following him, as he made his way over to a relatively unpopulated alleyway nearby. Hopefully, he'd be able to find something useful in that place with Adachi's help; As much as he didn't like to admit it, Sho was no detective— of course, he wasn't stupid, but he wasn't exactly on the wavelength of someone like Adachi or Naoto, either. He supposed that was why it paid to have the backing of a few trusted friends; people to lend a hand and fill in the blanks where he couldn't. It was almost funny; he never would've believed something like that a decade ago, always discrediting the idea of bonds as nothing more than weakness like he was. God, he really was stupid back then. The thought brought a dry smirk to his lips as he swiped through his phone for the app that would allow him and Adachi to cross over. "Ready to go?" He made sure to ask, if only so Adachi wouldn't complain about him bringing them to the other side before he was ready for it; although knowing him, he'd probably find something to complain about anyhow.

What else should Adachi have expected…? Thinking Sho would take anything that came out of his mouth seriously was like believing those brats could talk about anything other than bonds. Really, the fact that the kid had even implied that he listened to his request was more than Adachi should have expected, but that still didn't annoy him any less. Sure, living in the moment wasn't a concept he was against, but suggesting that after his entire debriefing didn't exactly win Adachi over… Much as he hated to admit it, though, Sho had a bit of a point. They weren't likely to run into Yosuke or the deity behind the other world—keeping their minds on that would only distract them from their real focus of investigation. "Sheesh, you ever gonna stop bossin' me around?" An eye roll escaped him as he stood from the stool, glancing over to Lala-chan and giving her a quick wave and promise to pay off the tab on his next visit before turning to catch up with Sho. That punk really didn't bother to wait for him, did he…? God, what an ass. At least Adachi had caught up by the time Sho made it to the alleyway, peeking over towards Sho's screen, eyes laser focused on the latest entry. Phlegethon, huh? He recalled it from one of his school texts… Some sort of Greek lore about the underworld, if he could recall far enough back. Anything else about it had slipped far out of his mind in the past two decades, but he made a mental note to look into it later. …Or, maybe he could've now, considering how Sho was smiling to himself, stuck in his own little world before having the balls to ask him if he was ready. Jeez, this kid really was something else, wasn't he…? "Stop stalling." Accompanying his annoyed complaint was a hand reaching over to tap on the app, sending the world around them into a blurry haze of black and red as they left reality behind. 》*Thread moved to #entrance_2 *