[h2]Sasaki Kirima - ?????????[/h2]
[quote=D-Watch Urgent System Message // N/A -> Username: KirimaS]This is an emergency message.


You can thank me later.[/quote]
Sasaki stared down at the message on his D-Watch, his mouth a hard line and his brow more furrowed than the Grand freakin’ Canyon. It didn’t take a genius to know something was up, especially with that terribly unsubtle message from Pride himself. For the first time in a very long time, he felt fear. Not worry, but that all consuming dread that something was about to go horrifically, unstoppably awry. Slowly, he attempted to unlatch the watch before fumbling and tearing it off out of frustration. [i]’Don’t worry,’[/i] Sasaki thought, peering over his left shoulder, then his right, [i]’This is one of those ‘social experiments’ from Showtube that I’m always hearing about, right? Where are the cameras?’[/i] 


The giant shook his head. He was being absurd. With Aria around, he was sure that Pride wouldn’t do anything too rash because doing so would be detrimental to his image. As much as he liked to tease him, Sasaki knew that Pride had exactly that: pride. Anything that would mar it was to be avoided. Which meant… Whatever was going to happen, was something that only he would know was very, very wrong. 


....Which somehow [i]more[/i] frightening than anything he’d thought of before.


[i]’Argh. I can’t understand that man,’[/i] he rubbed the back of his head frustratedly, [i]’As long as he didn’t go through all my files or something...’[/i] There was no sense in worrying, his mind told him; and yet his heart told him there was all the sense in worrying. He began counting numbers down in his head to calm his nerves. And for a moment, all was calm.


And then someone someone said his name loudly, and with purpose.


There was a distinct choking noise as Sasaki used every screaming fibre of his being to remain still. To not lash out violently, as much as his knee-jerk reaction wanted him to throw fists. Raising a twelve year-old with superspeed for six years did wonders for his self-discipline, far more than any of Seneca’s other attempts had. But even so... 


[i]’Oh lord that was embarrassing,’[/i] he thought with a sharp inhalation, and an inward cringe. Half of him wanted to pretend the person wasn’t there, but the other half knew better. Not just from the perspective of someone who wanted to be polite, but also from his own personal experience. This voice, soft in sound but firm in bearing, was unmistakably [i]hers[/i].


Immediately, he understood what Pride had meant, immediately he had agreed with him, and immediately, he had become about 10000x more suspicious of this situation. What was the twist? 


“Yes… It [i]has[/i] been a long time… yes,” Sasaki’s voice was slow and measured to catch speech errors, rather than resolute and rehearsed like Kotori’s. He still felt as if he was speaking like a goddamn nerd. When had he become so awkward? He spoken with many people in the past, so this shouldn’t be of great difficulty.  His face blanched the moment she mentioned a ‘peculiar message’. [i]‘Oh [/i]fuck.’ Adam didn’t do something weird in his name, did he? He’d heard all the man’s shitty pick up lines from his wife. God of Science he may have been, but he was no God of Seduction, that was for sure.  Sasaki narrowed his eyes slightly, still doing his best to awkwardly avoid the gaze of the woman standing beside him. He put his hands in his pockets to avoid fidgeting. “Was this message… Was it from-”


Fortunately, his question was answered before he could complete that sentence. Though it was not an answer he was pleased with, but it was an answer that brought relief to his heart. “I... “ For the first, he was at a loss for how to explain something. “Erm. Yes. In a way,” he fumbled with his words in his own stoic way before he was saved by the arrival of the blonde herself. “As you can see, that was definitely bad intel,” he nodded, still trying to avert the songbird’s gaze while casting curious glances of his own. He scratched the side of his jaw. 


“She’s in your class I take it?” he asked Kotori. He was aware that the songbird was an ENMA professor, and that Aria Fabre was an ENMA prospect, but he hadn’t known if there’d been any acquaintanceship made between them. Then, a thought occurred to the iron giant. “It’s not what it looks like. I’m picking her up and escorting her around town for a coworker. We’re supposed to meet up with someone else later today, but otherwise… No hostage situations, mm...” 


Yep. Best to be frank and cut off any potentially volatile, rom-com-esque situations off at the bud.


“Do you happen to be busy today, Namashiya-chan?”