#protectheart

Mitsuba hates surprises.

Well, no. That's not true. Mitsuba likes surprises, as long as they're good ones, but the fact of the matter seems to be that Mitsuba draws a whole lot of negativity to him rather than positivity. Any time he's been surprised, it hasn't been... great?

He's all but clinging to Nene like she's a lifeline, besides.

"Daikon-senpai," – and it's not quite a whine, but it's not not one. Mitsuba's better off here than Nene is, he knows, so even though he's basically wrapped himself around her, he understands that any protection is going to have to come from him. Mitsuba doesn't... expect the best from situations like this, though.

He still remembers, for instance, having to – well, having to run from... himself. The Mitsuba that existed before, Sousuke, his rumour corrupted and his form barely recognizable. Mitsuba doesn't trust when things happen. He didn't want to show up anywhere in the middle of a thing happening.

... like the laugh, taunting and ever-familiar, drifting out of the fog towards them.

"D-D-Daikon-senpai," he stutters, like he doesn't want to be sure of himself – and, admittedly, he doesn't. "Please tell me that doesn't sound like Tsukasa-kun. Lie to me if you have to. I-it's just Number Seven being a nuisance, right? Right?"

“Alright. You don’t use it--and you have no experience--which isn’t a problem as you’re an intern... But we could use more prosecutors in the office, even those who are interning. Welcome to the.....Edgeworth--”

“Edna.” a different voice interrupts from across the hall.

All at once, everything seemed to come to a halt. The city had blacked out, and then -- and then -- everything, all at once --

It would have been a lie to say Mitsuba felt comfortable with any of what was going on. He felt scared, he felt out of his element, and there was a giant island in the sky, someone had been talking to them, the floating lady was back...

... yeah, he didn’t like any of this.

It didn’t matter that he’d been given his powers back; he felt some level of control within himself that he hadn’t in the months since he’d been brought here, but that didn’t mean he felt okay. The past several days had taken so much out of him just in an attempt to try and protect the city, and with the hordes pouring out from above, Mitsuba felt more and more like it was going to be absolutely hopeless. He -- he wanted to hide away. He didn’t know what he was going to be able to do, in the grand scheme of things.

In the words of someone somewhere probably, great googly moogly, it was all going to shit. And Mitsuba was perfectly content to just try to keep himself safe for a few moments and -- and try to process what was going on.

It was the sound of footsteps that finally drew him out of his funk. Footsteps that sounded familiar in cadence; familiar enough that he slowly raised his head, eyes wide and searching for what he hoped would be a face that he knew. Soon enough his gaze fell upon her, on Nene, and Mitsuba jumped to his feet in an instant.

Any want to cower away was gone. She wasn’t safe here.

Nene was just a human. A human who had gotten herself tangled in with the wrong supernaturals time and time again, but a human nonetheless, and Mitsuba wasn’t about to let her get in harm’s way as long as he still had something he could do to save her. It was a little too clumsy when he charged up to her, and he stumbled a bit, but in no time at all Mitsuba had reached his claw out to wrap it around Nene’s wrist.

“Radish-senpai! You--”

--Mitsuba’s voice trailed off, interrupted by a terrible creaking sound. Why did he know that? Why did he feel like he had heard that noise before? Why did--

Mitsuba turned. His grip on Nene’s wrist went slack. Something teetered into view only a few dozen metres behind Nene, its eye focused firmly on the two of them.

“... R... Radish-senpai.” Where was his voice? Why did he sound so weak? Why were his cheeks wet? “Don’t -- don’t turn around. I ... need you to trust me. Okay? We -- we need -- we need to run.” His scarf was curling protectively around the both of them, but he felt frozen in his tracks.

Even if he said run, Mitsuba didn’t know if he’d be able to.

"Yashirooo." hanako sets his hands to her shoulders, looking very determined. it's obviously the most serious thing in the world ❪ to him. ❫ "There's a big pot of soup. It's huge, I heard. You wanna go see it? Maybe we could get some. I want soup. I want soup."

he squeezes.

Rui recognizes her. Kind of. He recognizes her in that he’s seen her before, briefly, but he hadn’t been able to put a name to her then. Moreso, he recognizes her in that he can hear Hanako’s voice so clearly echoing in his head – ‘she has radish legs! radish legs!’ – which hadn’t made any sense to him at the time, but putting two and two together has Rui’s gaze drift down to her ankles, and. Is that what he’d meant?

The two of them had talked about Hanako briefly, hadn’t they? So, was that...? Is this – his assistant? The – Yashiro, hadn’t he called her?

... by now, she’s probably noticed Rui staring at her, one way or another. It’s not exactly friendly, to have a pale-white boy staring at you in the dark of evening, barely any light left on the horizon. Only the dim light from the cabins is illuminating him, really. He looks like a terrifying creature, and he’s just staring at her.

“... h–...uh... hello.”

“... are... you Yashiro?”

Rui feels terribly, terribly guilty over things she can’t possibly know (he can still hear the jealousy in his own voice, demanding to know if Hanako was in love with her), and it takes a lot more than he’d like for his voice to stay steady.

Welcome to Eversanctum, Nene.

You awaken in the Grove with a key to cabin 04 clutched in your hand.

You have retained the ability to turn into a fish when submerged in water :)....

Upon checking out your room, you’ll find a cage with your hamster, Black Canyon, inside.

You are safe here, Saved One.

me staring at you directly in the camera as i knew this was happening and im nodding my head understandingly. chiaki nanami has been returned to be a pro-gamer at home instead of in the verge, and....i cant wait to see Them soon.