The eting spot was a small plaza three blocks from the school. Takeshi arrived five minutes before the agreed ti and stood beside a dry stone fountain, checking his stats for the second ti since leaving the apartnt.
[Life: 100%]
[Sanity: 78%]
[Points: 4]
Nothing had changed. It was just a nervous habit.
’Three points. If sothing goes wrong today, I can’t afford to waste them.’
The objective was simple in theory: spend ti with Sable, observe her, ask indirect questions, and gather enough information to understand why she was trying to kill Ophélia.
Without revealing anything, acting suspicious, or forgetting that she was still potentially dangerous.
In theory.
He heard footsteps and looked up.
Sable was walking from the direction of the main avenue. She wore a light gray coat over a white blouse and dark pants. Her short blue hair looked slightly different from how it did at school, free from the usual rigidity imposed by the uniform, and she was still wearing her glasses.
Takeshi hadn’t expected that.
It wasn’t that she was excessively dressed up, but she was clearly different from the version of Sable that existed in the high school hallways, where her presence went completely unnoticed. Here, outside the uniform, she was a different person.
’She put effort into it. I wasn’t expecting that.’
[SABLE IN NORMAL CLOTHES]
[wait wait wait wait]
[takeshi stone face as always]
[she tried way too hard for soone who’s "just coming out of courtesy"]
[HAHAHAHA exactly]
Sable stopped about six feet away from him and looked at him without speaking for a mont.
"You arrived on ti."
She said.
"So did you."
Silence.
"Where are we going?"
She asked.
Takeshi had thought about that. He needed a place where they could talk without too much noise, where the conversation wouldn’t be constantly interrupted, but not so isolated that Sable would feel uncomfortable.
"There’s a café two blocks from here. It’s not noisy."
Sable nodded once, and they started walking.
The first few minutes were awkward in a very specific way. There wasn’t complete silence because the street provided background noise, but between the two of them, there was nothing.
Takeshi tried to figure out the best way to start a conversation without making it sound like an interrogation.
Sable spoke first.
"I didn’t think you’d show up."
Takeshi glanced at her.
"Why not?"
"Because the way you said what you said yesterday didn’t seem planned."
"It wasn’t."
She didn’t respond to that. Instead, she kept walking with her hands in her coat pockets.
’Direct and observant. She analyzes before speaking. Just like yesterday.’
The café was called Bronze and had dark wooden tables and enough natural light that it didn’t feel enclosed.
About six tables were occupied, so they took one by the side window.
A server approached. Sable ordered unsweetened black tea, and Takeshi ordered coffee.
When the server left, Sable folded her arms on the table and looked directly at him.
"What do you want to know about ?"
Takeshi blinked.
"Excuse ?"
"Yesterday you asked questions all day and suggested going out today. People don’t do that unless they want sothing."
’Too perceptive.’
[HAHAHA she caught him in five seconds]
[takeshi ntally sweating]
[she is SMART]
[well that’s the end of the date]
[no no wait let’s see how he gets out of this]
Takeshi decided not to lie completely.
"Yesterday I bumped into you by accident, and I spent the whole day feeling bad about it. I wanted to do sothing to make up for it."
Sable stared at him for three seconds.
"That doesn’t explain what you said."
"No, it doesn’t."
Another silence, but this ti Takeshi didn’t fill it.
Sable looked away toward the window.
"Fine. You can ask whatever you want, but I don’t promise I’ll answer everything."
"Fair enough."
Their drinks arrived. Sable wrapped both hands around her cup even though the tea was still very hot.
Takeshi started with sothing harmless.
"Have you been in the school band long?"
"Since freshman year."
"What instrunt?"
"Guitar."
"Do you like it?"
Sable took a mont before answering.
"It’s what I do best."
’I don’t know how to interpret that answer.’
"And outside of band?"
Takeshi asked.
"Not much."
"Nothing?"
"I read, I walk, I don’t need more."
["I don’t need more" she’s literally ]
[takeshi undercover detective mode activated]
[walks... like when she went to the bridge... hmm]
[wait wait wait]
[I noticed that too]
Takeshi rotated his cup between his fingers.
"Do you know this part of the city well?"
"Pretty well."
"Because of the walks?"
"Yes."
"Do you usually go alone?"
Sable looked at him. The question had sounded more direct than he’d intended.
"Most of the ti."
She answered.
"Why?"
"Just curious. The city can be unpredictable."
"I can take care of myself."
She said it without aggression. It was a statent of fact, not a defensive response.
’She says it like soone who’s tested it.’
He changed directions.
"Lyra ntioned you’re bandmates. Do you get along?"
Sable considered the question.
"We tolerate each other well, but we’re not close friends."
"Do you have any close friends?"
"No."
The answer ca without hesitation or discomfort.
"Doesn’t that make things harder at school?"
Takeshi asked.
"No."
"Why not?"
Sable looked at him with an expression that wasn’t quite irritation, but ca close.
"Because I don’t need things to be easy in order to handle them."
[okay respect]
[she has way more personality than I expected]
[takeshi literally interrogating her with a date face]
[and she’s answering everything, which is weird for soone with 0% trust]
[good point]
’Zero trust in , but she’s answering. Why?’
Takeshi didn’t have an answer to that yet. It could be that the situation had caught her off guard enough to lower her guard slightly, but it could also be sothing else.
He drank his coffee, and Sable drank her tea.
"And you?"
She said suddenly.
" what?"
"You’re on the student council. That ans you have to talk to a lot of people all the ti."
She paused briefly.
"Do you like that?"
The question caught him by surprise. He hadn’t expected her to ask sothing personal.
"Not particularly."
Takeshi answered.
"Then why are you there?"
"Because it was necessary."
Sable tilted her head slightly.
"Necessary for what?"
"For so things I need to solve."
She didn’t press further. She accepted the vague answer as easily as she had accepted not answering certain things herself. Takeshi noticed the exchange.
’She respects the boundary.’
[they’re actually getting to know each other without realizing it]
[sable asked sothing personal!! progress!!]
[takeshi was vague too and she accepted it, they’re the sa hahaha]
[this is... unexpectedly calm]
[too calm. sothing’s going to happen]
Over the next several minutes, the conversation beca less tense. It wasn’t a major change. Sable didn’t start smiling or talking faster. She remained direct, economical with words, and made no effort to fill the silences.
But she stopped monitoring Takeshi with the sa constant vigilance she had shown at the beginning.
They talked about school without touching on anything important. They briefly discussed the band schedule. Sable ntioned without any particular emotion that afternoon rehearsals were the only tis when the music room was available afterward for her to practice alone, and that mattered more to her than the rehearsal itself.
"You practice after group rehearsal?"
Takeshi asked.
"Whenever I can."
"How long?"
"An hour. Sotis more."
"Alone in the music room?"
"Yes."
Sable set her empty cup on the table and looked out the window for a mont. Outside, the afternoon was still as gray as when they had arrived.
"You aren’t what I expected..."
She said.
Takeshi waited.
"Yesterday you seed like soone who had no idea what he was doing."
She looked at him.
"Today you seem like soone who knows exactly what he’s doing and chooses not to show it."
Takeshi didn’t answer imdiately.
"Both things can be true at the sa ti."
He finally said.
Sable studied him for a mont. Then, very slightly, she nodded.
It wasn’t approval, but acknowledgnt.
[SHE NODDED]
[sable kuroe just gave him his first ntal trust point hahaha]
[I can’t see the number but I bet it went up at least one]
[this is going better than it should]
Takeshi asked for the check.
While they waited, Sable leaned back slightly in her chair, the first ti all afternoon that her posture had been any less rigid than at the start.
’I still don’t know why she wants to kill Ophélia, who hired her, or whether anyone hired her at all, and what makes her capable of doing it.’
But now he had sothing he hadn’t had before.
A more complete picture of who he was dealing with.
Sable wasn’t impulsive. She wasn’t soone who acted on emotion. She was calculated, observant, and completely comfortable operating alone.
That was the most important thing he’d learned that afternoon.
They paid and stepped back onto the street. The air outside was colder than when they had entered.
Sable stopped at the café entrance and looked at him.
"Does this end here, or do you have sothing else planned?"
Takeshi considered the question. He had nothing else planned for today, and forcing more ti together could ruin what had worked over the last hour.
"It ends here."
He said.
Sable nodded.
"Good."
She took a step to leave, then stopped without fully turning around.
"Next ti, give more notice."
She left without waiting for a response.
Takeshi remained standing at the café entrance, processing that final sentence.
’Next ti.’
[NEXT TI]
[SHE SAID NEXT TI]
[she left before he could react HAHAHA]
[that’s not sothing soone says when they’re "just coming out of courtesy"]
[takeshi confused on the sidewalk, a classic]
Takeshi walked back toward his apartnt with his hands in his pockets, his thoughts focused on sorting through everything that had just happened.
He had more information.
What he still didn’t have was the most important thing: the motive. Without that, he couldn’t predict when she would act or how to stop her.
But today there were no deaths.
Ophélia was safe.
For now, that was enough.
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