Mamoru arrived into the training hall just to see things wind down to an end. Mako had arrived and largely defused the situation whilst everyone else was leaving. Mamoru didn’t say a peep, but neither did she leave immediately. She largely stayed out of sight to listen in on Jett and Roy, When Mako finished off by giving them both detention, Mamoru left to mull on her own thoughts. Thinking wasn’t something Mamoru liked to do very often. It was way too easy for her to start loathing herself. Even now having listened to Roy and Jett, Mamoru questioned her own conviction. She didn’t have any tragic reasons for being here, no real drive beyond a simple dream. Her childhood had no hardships or drama. Even now she lived in blissful ignorance as everyone else suffered from the hands of villainy. Mamoru didn’t even have the courage to go see them at the hospital out of reasons more related to her own self pity rather than any sympathy.
”Ah, here I go again, always trying to make this about me.”She needed a distraction. If she left herself idle for too long she’d just start questioning why she hasn’t done this or that and generally feeling useless. She had homework to do but frankly she doesn’t really want to do it. She thought about going out into town but she didn’t know what she’d do. Then she had an idea; she should go visit Reina. Last Mamoru checked she never returned from the hospital. Though as she thought of this, Mamoru’d doubts began to creep into her thoughts again.
”Nope. Don’t think about it. Right now just find Reina. Get her something nice like oranges. Maybe some notes from class today, I’m sure Reina would like to keep up.” And so Mamoru, after a quick shower at the dorms, changed into some casual clothes and went to the hospital. She brought a bag of mandarin oranges along the way as a gift.
”Being a hero is about the things you do for others after all. If I only did it for myself, I’d be a terrible person.”
Donny calmed down as Nia showed him that she wasn’t bleeding. He was rather embarrassed; he had jumped the gun so quickly. He stayed quiet as she showed him the new fruit as tasted the mango-tasting melon. It was good. When he looked at Nia again he could see that she was also embarrassed. Then he noticed the smell. A very fruity scent. Donny remembered that this smell bothered her since it attracted animals and, as Donny knew well, smelling weird made people talk about you. And not in a good way. He needed a way to distract her.
”Oh. Uuuuuuuh hey! I know! I-I-I-I could cook something!”Cooking was one of the few things Donny felt he could do confidently. He didn’t know people well enough to really work out a way to calm Nia down, but if cooking could help her forget her problems than it’ll help Donny with us. He stood up and when the tomatoes grew back he plucked a few of them. He also plucked a few mango melons too. He had an idea for both of them.
”Ah, w-w-w-would you l-like to help me c-c-c-cook something? I-I-I mean, theses are y-y-your fruits after all! You should be allowed to h-h-h-h-have some.” He wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but he just wanted to try and draw attention away from the smell and Nia’s appearances. Focus on him a bit so she didn’t have to worry so much about herself.
@liferusher
It wasn’t long before Sakura returned to the 1B homeroom. At the moment, Asahi, Retsu, and Doll were there working on paperwork and reviewing documents. A lot of them had to do with the Komei Collective, but a few also covered some rules and laws of the school pertaining to the little incident that Sakura went over to deal with. Retsu looked up to the stoic pinkette and smirked.
"No use huh?" Sakura sat at the desks and took a pile of papers to review. She adjusted her glasses as Doll handed her a bottle of water.
"Of course it didn't. Honestly... Why even waste time with it? There's more important work to do." The documents Sakura was looking over covered student conduct both inside and outside of school grounds. Specifically, in regards to using one's quirk during scenes of criminal activity. It was already highlighted in some areas but Sakura seemed particularly analytical about these sections. Retsu stood up and stretched.
"Now now Sakura-chan, just because things are starting to heat up doesn't mean we throw all the rules out of the window. The school is busy investigating what happened this weekend, so of course they can't be bothered to actually deal with issues like our resident Drama Queen and the Edgelord. It wouldn't look good if we just ignored it either, trying to bury bad news other controversy." However this answer didn't satisfy Sakura as she looked directly at Retsu.
"That's not what I'm talking about. We're still investigating the Cellphone Killer mystery, and you're dividing everyone's attention with this collective business and now peacekeeping? Is this suppose to be another one of your schemes?" Sakura said accusingly. Retsu, as always, just smiled and raised her hands up defensively.
"Chill Sakura-chan. I know it's stressful for everyone right now. That's why I wanted the two hardest working people in my team to cool their heads. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to try and make you talk down Seiko-san, but you've been losing sleep on all of your research." This just made Sakura rub her eyes in annoyance as she sat down and took a sip of water as well as an aspirin. She continued to flipped through the papers but she wasn't really reading them. Just flipping through them as a means to distract herself.
"Chill? You want me to chill? When you want me to research rules and regulations in twenty textbooks about law and academy code, while we're racing against the clock against some rumor about a serial killer, while there may be a possibility that Paradise is on the move? And your idea of me chilling is to be annoyed by some flamboyant cock who'd sooner shoot himself in the foot than to think he messed up somewhere?" Retsu shrugged and kept smiling.
"Never said anything like that. But that is what I'm worried about. You're getting ahead of yourself trying to go a mile a minute. It isn't like you to be jumping to conclusions-" As Retsu said this Sakura stood up and looked at Retsu harshly, slamming the book she had on hand down onto the table.
"Lives are at stake here Retsu, we don't have time looking into false leads or getting distracted with petty student drama! Am I the only one who thinks we need to focus on the task at hand!?"It was then that Asahi, who had been busy doing a conference with some other collective members on his laptop, spoke up.
"You're losing sight on what Retsu asked you to do! You're suppose to be finding out how he's managed to escape investigation. You think he's been exploiting some loophole in the law when it could be something much simpler. That's why she had you look into that little prank so you could maybe find some sort of revelation from it." This only angered Sakura even more however, as she disliked their roundabout way of trying to explain themselves using metaphor and allegory. She said as much.
"These are two vastly different examples, and we all know that no one is ultimately getting punished because there's bigger things to worry about! No one cares about what happened to Amane! I doubt even he cares! No one died, barely anyone knows about it in school, and the only reason we're looking into it is because you two don't seem to have anything else better to do!" Retsu just sighed again and sat down.
"There you go again making assumptions. Look at yourself, Sakura-chan. You're chasing shadows and trying to make something out of nothing. And you know as well as I do you have a hard time looking at the bigger picture once you think you've found a lead. That investigative attitude is good, but only when used well."Retsu leaned back and touched the tips of her fingers together.
"While I'm fighting fires trying to give us some semblance of a normal life here at school, I need you to be my eyes. See things I can't look into directly. But you're making the same mistakes as all the other higher ups are doing which is exactly what we're here to stop; getting so focused on one target that we miss out on other leads. Take for example, that attack on the 1A students. I'm sure the school and other heroes are looking into the villains and trying to figure out how or why they attacked the students. But I bet they haven't even thought about trying to ask the students what they know. And I'm not just talking about the ones directly involved; I bet the other 1A students might have some insight on the villains that the teachers haven't discovered yet even if they never fought the villains. There's a bigger web here than just what's been broken is what I mean." Sakura had no words for these ridiculous things Retsu was saying, thinking that she was just grasping at nothing and making up more of her empty lies. Though Sakura has learned that Retsu's lies are just as valid as her honesty, it also made it irritating for Sakura to try and parse without needing a few hours to mull on it.
"So what?" Sakura took a deep breath and tried to calm down a bit. Emotions were getting high that much as for certain.
"You think- Okay, let me rephrase that. What I should do is instead of trying to... Investigate those directly involved... I should look for their associates? Try to find out more information through them?" It still didn't make much sense to Sakura. In fact is sounded like a waste of time. What are the chances that somehow one unrelated person out of everyone else with a tangible reason to be involved would hold the key to how to solve this mystery?
"Sounds like a waste of time, time we don't have before the next killing. I need to look for solid evidence, not loose ends."Retsu chuckled and shook her head.
"Au contraire, my friend. You've already looked at some pretty solid evidence and thus through that everything seems rocksteady. But that's just the thing; everything might be right by the book, but there's that thread that links this all together. You can only find it if you're looking for it; dismissing it outright means it'll go right under your nose and you'll never see it until it's too late. I bet you tried to appeal to Seiko with an expert from the school book and probably threw some insults at her character while you were at it. That's just slamming your head against a wall and trying to make something out of nothing. You should've looked more into the whys she was doing it, and how she was able to pull it off. She obviously wasn't alone, but I don't think she was the mastermind either. Certainly a part of it, but she neither started the plot nor planned it out. She was just a cog in the conspiracy. I need you to be able to realize that if you want to keep looking into the Cellphone Killer Mystery. He's not skirting around the investigation because he's somehow able to get a loophole around the law. There's something else in play that lets him get away with this that you haven't spotted yet because you haven't thought to look for it. I know because I think I might've noticed, but unless I have eyes on it I can't say for certain it's just me or legit." Retsu handed Sakura an envelope and she opened it to read it. She seemed quiet as she looked through the contents. When she was done she put the letter down and put her face into her hands.
"You couldn't have just given this to me to start with and save us all from this roundabout bullshit?" Once more the class rep just smiled and picked up her work from where she left off.
"Work smarter, not harder. Just because you put a lot of effort into it doesn't mean it'll amount to anything in the end. Honestly, I'm surprised it was this simple. But hindsight's 20/20 isn't it? Once everyone is back we'll set out to finish this case and maybe we can go karaoke or something."
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