The Emperor

Once the blond was done with his call, Adachi greeted him with his usual smile. “Oh! Must’ve been an important call.” He commented, cocking his head slightly. “Especially in the middle of me questioning you, Mister Tatsumi. Not calling up some buddies of yours to come beat me up or anything, I hope!” he laughed nervously, like he was telling a bad joke. Well shit, now that Adachi thought about it, he wondered if that really was what happened. He wouldn’t put it past the teen to want to beat the shit out of him.

The detective rose an eyebrow. “A drink?” he asked, blinking in confusion. “What’s this? Kanji Tatsumi wanting to buy an officer a drink?”

That sounded like an odd offer, coming from Tatsumi, but… Sure. Adachi would play along. Why the hell not? Wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

Kanji did not hide an amused snort at the detective’s words. Calling more people to beat up a single person was cowardice, and that was not a trait that defined the young man. Adachi was lanky, so a good punch should be enough to get him off his high horse. Kanji played with the idea in his mind, imagining the detective’s smile transfigured into a terrified grimace.  As if. He would not beat up someone, especially weaker than him, for such a pleasure, unless they truly deserved it.

“Pah! I ain’t needing buddies to beat up someone’s shit. ‘s not like I’ve got such friends, anyways.”

It was not the time to be angry at Adachi, however. Kanji scolded himself mentally for failing to keep his façade of politeness on. True, a renowned delinquent (who simply happened to have the fame, but that defense was beyond the point at hand) asking an officer to have a drink was as doubtful as it could get. Thankfully, Adachi was quick to accept the situation.

Looking about, Adachi scratched at the back of his head, though he kept an eye an Kanji. In case the teen decided to try and throw a punch at an officer. The thought made Adachi sweat nervously. It wasn’t like he could easily defend himself, even though he was older.

"That’s a uh.. Very interesting story.." the detective started, still sounding suspicious. Regardless, he clapped his hands together, then smiled.

"No problem? A-okay! Well, let’s head over there, then!"

“Ah, shit! I forgot that I need to ring someone. Can’t postpone it, y’see? Gimme a minute.”

Kanji walked a few steps away from Adachi, creating a long enough distance to make the call hard for the man to listen to and yet close enough to not raise too much suspicion. The blond took his celphone out of one of his pockets and dialed a number. He made an effort to lay low by muttering the conversation as well as he could.

“It’s me... Dammit Ted! Now’s not the time for that. Listen! I need you to go to my house and get my ‘weapon’ from here… don’t worry about that, just ask Ma where it is. Then take it to Junes and put it in a place with a label that fits. Yeah, got’cha. Thanks. Later.”

A press of the celphone’s large red button caused a loud beep to be heard, putting an end to the call. With the preparations in place, it was time to buy the bear some time to act.

But with video games at its current necessity to solve this case, she’s left without much choice but to proceed. Her own understanding variant upon the information Kanji would share, she listens intently. A brow almost lifts as she watches the other boy examine her from head to toe - now just what could he possibly be thinking? Certainly not a cause for concern, she hopes; brows furrowing slightly in her quizzical state, but Kanji doesn’t opt to reveal judgement in his response, instead referring to her inquiry with a helpful response (Or so she hopes?)

Of course, she’s willing to cast the thought aside in favour of that, and yet… World of Peacecraft doesn’t strike a familiar tone in her memory. Which isn’t surprising in the least, but she just nods… Wait. World of Peacecraft? No, perhaps… World of Warcraft? She does recall the game being a part of the boy’s profile in the list.

"I think you mean World of Warcraft," she pointedly recalls, confidence on the subject growing soon after. "That isn’t to say I play these games myself, but I do require help in understanding them. A witness I’m dealing with only wishes to cooperate with someone who is knowledgeable in the realm of video games.

A witness who would only talk at the mention of a certain videogame, huh? That was rather pitiful, and deferring to such a wish seemed desperate. However, Kanji trusted Naoto’s judgment on the issue, and if she affirmed there was no other way, that was almost certainly true. Besides, it was a good explanation for the detective’s sudden interest in videogames.

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Kanji urged, “Though, to be honest, you won’t understand much if you don’t play ‘em yourself, I think.” Tapping his foot lightly, he finished, “I don’t mind helping.”

Plus, Adachi had a.. feeling about Kanji. No, about the group of friends he was currently socializing with. Especially Dojima’s nephew. They’d meet up often at Junes, and it seemed each new victim Adachi had manipulated Namatame into kidnapping became part of Narukami’s group of friends. These damn kids were meddling in his business, he felt. It had to be them.

The detective frowned, a confused look crossing over his face. “If it’s not a desk from your school, then why is it reported as such?” He cocked his head, then took out a small notebook. “Some have claimed seeing you leave school with a desk! Isn’t that odd, Kanji?” He watched the teen carefully, waiting for his response. Forget what he felt earlier. Messing with these kids was fun. It wasn’t like Adachi REALLY cared that Kanji was possibly stealing a desk from the school.

"T-the school just bought the same type of desk, is all!" He had let his confidence slip for a brief moment, but he had to have it, or fake it, if he wanted the facade to work, "Those damn things are popular, get it!?"

Ah, but of course. Kanji would occasionally bring his desk along with him, especially when the Investigation Team planned to go on a trip to the other world. An unpractical necessity.

"I've got to fetch 'em early sometimes, so I bring 'em with me to school and take 'em to Junes later," His colleagues could never shut their traps, could they? Now he had to lie through his teeth, and to a police officer to boot.

Shit! Adachi wanted to check whether or not the desks were for sale, huh? That was to be expected, and yet Kanji overlooked that important detail. All he had left was to go along and hope Junes would live up to its reputation of having a comprehensive list of items for sale - schools had to buy their desks somewhere, right?

Anyway, from what I've seen (I'm pretty new, too!) most people seem to be rather flexible regarding the time of the roleplays.

Personally, I have a set standard written on my blog - in my case, Post-Persona 4, pre-Golden Epilogue Kanji -  that I will roleplay by default unless a) it would be an impossibility, like in the case of our roleplay, which I assume happens during Persona 4 b) the other person clearly asks for it OOCly (via ask or whatnot).

So, I say: feel free to roleplay whatever time periods you wish!

To say that the Emperor and the Chariot were close would have been an over-statement. Surely, comrades in arms was more applicable but to associate them as close friends due to their proximity would have been an ill advised assumption. In fact, aside from mockery of one another’s innate talents and abilities, the pair barely quarreled or jested with one another - normally jotted along side with their respective counterparts and infatuations, if one was so inclined to call them that. 

All the same, the petite brunette brawler held a level of indifference when it came to the taller punk, finding amusement in his rash behavior - similar to her own, and his interesting quirks that never crossed her mind as being unusual. If anything, endearing. So, approaching him on the hot school day hadn’t seemed nearly as terrifying as it would have been prior to discovering him post-Midnight channel. 

Then again, approaching him at school seemed incredibly unlikely. He didn’t even look like he suited the hallways. 

He was not particularly close to anyone in his class, although lately he managed to have a chat or two, or laugh at a joke a classmate cracked at him. It would be an exaggeration to think he would perchance know a lot about his classmates, be it their hobbies, personality or background. Perhaps, if he was inclined to gossip, that would be a possibility, but that was something Kanji could live without.

Exactly because of his lack of knowledge about his classmates, what happened before homeroom caught him off-guard. Being accused of bullying was something he had gotten used to. However, being challenged to fight by a colleague from school was new for him. What was that guy thinking? Kanji was not some punk who got into fights for the pleasure of it. And yet, the veiled threat of "causin' a ruckus at your house ‘n shop, t'give you a scare..." should he refuse made him more nervous than he was willing to admit.

He was brought down to earth by an enthusiastic greeting. Kanji shifted his focus to the person who uttered it. A girl, small in stature but huge in spirit, with brown hair and a green jacket hiding her school uniform's shirt, approached him. Chie Satonaka, a member of the group who had rescued him... one who had seen his Shadow... The young man swept the thought away.

"Oh, yo," he retorted, "Yeah, I'm... waitin' for someone? Yeah, that."

Why was Chie walking in such a funny way? Then again, Kanji himself had his own walking quirks, which led him to basically stomp his way.

She made the question he had feared she would. Dammit, should I cut the chase, or...?