lempereur | IC Contact; MoM

Your eyes were the same color they always are, Yusuke. [Brendan's not even going to ask what the significance of the that is.] I should know, you put your head against mine like you did at the party and acted like you were going to kiss me, I got the best look at them I ever have. Same charcoal gray-black as ever.

The property damage in Heropa, the traffic cams and the recording I got of the tail end of our encounter back up that you most definitely were out earlier. Turn on the damn news if you don't believe me, cops and cameras already catalogued the damage your 'Goemon' did. Including whatever's left of the wall of ice you had him throw at me, which I consider to be hurtful. Particularly since I was picking glass out of my head and neck for half an hour.

Foxes are supposed to be smart and gray is supposed to be a calming color. Guess everything really is different in your world.

[ You think he's leaving to go turn on the TV and explain what's on it to Jaime? Or leaving for any other reason? Yeah no. ]

I was not there. I couldn't have been. I was here, picking away at myself the way you do, over something entirely unrelated. What you saw was...a shadow, or an illusion, or a shapeshifter, I don't know.

I am telling you the truth, even though I know it sounds crazy. If I had a better story, I would give it to you, but I have nothing else. Please, at least look into it, I am not that person. I do not want to hurt anyone. Especially not you.

Unless you were drunk, you're not picking away at yourself exactly how I do.

I'll look into it. But if the evidence comes up supporting what I experienced, what I know to be real, then I'm not gonna refuse to turn that evidence over. Just because I used to think I could love you doesn't mean you've got carte blanche; if I don't get damn good evidence you weren't the one who unleashed that Persona last night, I am obligated by whatever tiny shreds of morality I have to keep you from hurting more people.

It's nothing personal. I am done with seeing people die when I could have stopped it. I don't care what I used to think we could have. Nobody gets to endanger innocent people. Period.

Dunno if you're religious or how religion works in Japan, but you should probably start praying.

[And he ends the call. He has to, because after he does, hot, angry tears brew in his eyes and spill over. He slumps over his desk and presses his palms into his eyes until the pain makes the tears stop entirely. He really thought for a moment earlier, when Yusuke took him by the hand, that someone actually loved him.

It's the stupidest thing he's done since he was Ported in.]

[ A few hours later... ]

Mai - the host of the morning show Smiles for Miles. She was at my house destroying my window at the same time I was supposedly trying to kill you.

Futaba Sakura - she's probably tracking me on her computer

Akira Kurusu
Yuri Plisetsky
Viktor Nikiforov
Jaime Reyes
Tara Markov
Tohru Adachi

they will all tell you the same thing, because it's the truth

i've hung out with tara before, she hates me. she'd give a fake alibi out of spite.

i'll check everyone else's stories, though. not because i believe you, but because i want to know the truth and i know i can't get it from you, yusuke. by the way, i did a run and grab on one of the street cameras. here's footage of you hauling me around - which i've already backed up in multiple places, so denial and futaba can't save you now.

[Climbing a street lamp pole and breaking a traffic light open for parts was not how he envisioned this morning going but at least now, he has it: footage of Yusuke hauling Brendan around hand in hand, talking, smiling that off-kilter smile. He sends Yusuke a copy out of sheer spite.]

i go to the cops with this, and it'll bury you alive. i wouldn't even care at this point if they called me an accomplice and threw me under the bus. i'm done with your games, yusuke.

Futaba has saved me from worse than you.

considering you did this and there's video footage of you that contradicts your alibi? right now she's gonna have to save you from something much worse than me or the gods you said you'd fought in the past - she'll have to save you from yourself.

[ Well...he's done the same for her already. ]

enough with the drama. i have to fix the window.

stop causing drama, then. 1 step solution.

It's always me. Never you. What an unlikely coincidence.

[He responds by re-sending the video from the traffic light, the video/audio he recorded, and a link to a news article on a Heropa website about the damage.

None of that is his fault and he's done with Yusuke pretending otherwise. Fuck him.]

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