OOM: Hawaii, part 2

[dwellsinthedetails]

Hawaii is nothing if not beautiful. Yusuke can’t help feeling he should have packed at least one more sketchbook than the two he brought, but oh well; if he feels the need to buy another, he’s sure he’ll be able to find one. And in other respects, having inadvertently joined his friends’ school trip is infinitely preferable to being half an ocean away from them. He’s aware Togo-san’s been talking to Akira lately, but they still aren’t particularly close themselves.

On one restless night at the resort, Yusuke steps outside to draw a night scene, allowing himself to get lost in his work to the point that he barely hears footsteps behind him.

“Yusuke?”

He nearly drops his sketchbook, but it’s only Akira, who gives Yusuke an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s quite all right, my friend. What brings you out here?”

“My room got a little crowded. Ann’s locked out of hers, Ryuji’s been given the boot so his roommate can get busy with his girlfriend – these two incidents aren’t unrelated – and Mishima won’t shut up about the damn Phansite. When he’s not learning why he shouldn’t drink tap water in a foreign country, anyway.”

Yusuke can’t help but chuckle. “Surely you could find more entertaining company than me.”

“Entertaining is relative, and I could do with some peace and quiet.” Akira settles down next to Yusuke, and lets him get on with his work. They stay like that for an hour or two, until Yusuke can’t quite keep his focus any longer.

“Would you like to come back to my room? I ended up without a roommate, as things fell out, so you would have a bit more space.”

Akira smiles. “Sure. Let me stop by mine for some clothes?”

***

They return home to good news and bad news. The good news is that Futaba’s teased some useful data out of Niijima-san’s case files; a number of mental shutdown and psychotic breakdown incidents have benefited Okumura Foods, to a degree that cannot possibly be a coincidence. The scandals caused by the psychotic breakdowns eliminate the company’s competition, and the mental shutdowns likewise seem to be eliminating barriers to expansion (which goes some way toward explaining why they ran across a Big Bang Burger in Hawaii). On top of that, Akechi’s trying to backpedal his stance against them, though it’s not exactly working in his favor; still, that’s one slight lessening of stress on them.

The bad news is that the principal of Shujin Academy died the day before everyone returned to Tokyo, of an apparent heart attack in the middle of the street – but the fact that he stopped dead in front of an oncoming truck sends a chill up Yusuke’s spine. The school was in a precarious position, with more about the cover-up of Kamoshida’s abuses coming to light just before the school trip; it’s very possible that their adversary is looking to remove liabilities as well as competition.

Okumura Foods’ CEO has been hovering near the top of the Phansite’s ranking poll; between that and his probable connection to the mental shutdown incidents, he’s a very likely choice for their next target. However, there are still a lot of unknowns, not least of which is the spike in traffic on the Phansite. The pressure is enough to give them reservations about storming into the next Palace – and for some reason, that’s the point where Morgana snaps.

“Some team you are. What’s with all the hesitation? I can’t stand this! Even you, Ryuji – you just back down the second someone disagrees with you!” For some reason, he snaps at them all both for refusing to agree to the target and for ‘getting conceited’ over their newfound fame – the very thing that Yusuke and Ann, at least, are trying not to do by advocating for further research.

And then he leaves, intending to take on the Palace all on his own. Even Ann can’t get him to turn back.

***

Akira: Morgana’s not back yet.
Akira: He’s been acting weird since the beach. Kept saying he wanted to talk to me and then ‘no never mind you should sleep.’
Yusuke: He’ll return eventually. We can sort out some kind of reconciliation, if only he’ll discuss it with us.
Akira: I hope you’re right.