#i already knew adachi from the memes

[autonomousxselves]

//Since others are mentioning Persona twist antagonists, I wanna say every single one was spoiled by my friend in the middle of each game 🤡

[adachimoe]

Interpreting Adachi's actions during Persona 4

One of the things I've noticed on the internet is that when it comes to Adachi, people are very quick to say, "He did it because he was bored", "he was manipulating people", "he was playing a little game"...

This is based on what he says when the gang confronts him inside of the TV. The Investigation Team asks why he sent Namatame on a quest to "save" people, and he says he did it cause he could and that it was fun. He goes on to describe the cycle of "Namatame puts someone in a TV" -> "the protagonist and his friends save the person" as an entertaining little game. But to be honest, I'm not sure why people take this all at face value. Even just what he says in the present day conflicts with the flashbacks the game shows you from April.

This also gets turned into, "Adachi murdered people because he was bored!" But even then, him murdering Mayumi was an accident, not an act of boredom. Even in the flashback where he pushes her into the TV, he's surprised that a whole body can go into the TV. In his very first scene in the game, he rushes by to throw up after seeing her dead body. I don't think he was expecting that outcome.

In my opinion, Adachi's goal was actually to get Namatame (and specifically Namatame) to kill someone on accident, and then get Namatame accused of Adachi's murders as well. This way, Adachi himself would be free.

While the game doesn't outright tell you what Adachi was doing, I think it does provide you with a lot of hints about what Adachi has been up to. And by pinning them all on a board like the Always Sunny meme, perhaps it can explain the disconnect. As the game never really directly states or confirms anything I'm about to say, this is in theory and meta and incoherent rambling territory, but I hope by the end of the post you get where I'm coming from.

What Adachi says about his "game" and his "manipulation" of all players involved

When you confront Adachi in the TV, he describes the cat and mouse game as this:

Adachi: Of all the people who could've received Namatame's call, it ended up being me. Talk about luck! All I did was give him a little push... And he completely bought into his vision of this world. The more people you guys saved, the more he'd kidnap... Both sides had the best of intentions, so the game of cat and mouse would never end... Haha, it was awesome. Kanji: You gotta be shittin' me! Yukiko: Why...? What reasons could you have for doing that!? Adachi: Reasons...? None, really. I could do it, that's all. And it was fun... I guess that's my reason?

I think it's strange that people take this at face value considering Adachi says all of this inside of the TV world where he is also later seen with yellow shadow eyes. As we know from the game, the shadows don't tell the truth, they tell heavily distorted versions of the truth. Persona Q also explains this as someone being overtaken by their shadow.

I feel like you can tell there's a disconnect in the TV on December 7th between how he talks about himself, versus what we see in the flashbacks. In the TV, he talks like Mayumi "betrayed" him, but we know she was just already with another guy. In fact, her affair putting her in the news is probably why she appeared on the Midnight Channel to begin with. It's like he's just feeding his own delusions.

He then talks himself up to the IT, saying that he had called Saki in for questioning to see if she had found something about the body or knew something. But in the flashback, he immediately backs her into a corner against a TV and then tries to force himself on her. He called her there under the false pretense of talking about the crime scene. He is already distorting the truth on his own.

When Adachi first told Namatame to "save" people, he knew from experience that whoever Namatame put into the TV was going to die. Adachi probably did think it was funny, but Adachi was also the real culprit all along and he had something to gain if Namatame accidentally killed someone and could take the blame for Adachi's own murders. I'm pretty sure he was expecting and anticipating Namatame to produce a dead body, not for a gang of high schoolers to show up and rescue the abducted person.

At this point, people go, "Oh he didn't know about the Investigation Team from the start, he just started manipulating both sides and kept the 'game' going". And yeah, it's true that he manipulated Namatame, it's also true that both the IT and Namatame thought they were rescuing people, and he did definitely try to manipulate the IT into killing Namatame.

But I don't see how this all means that Adachi figured out what was going on between Namatame and the IT and then "kept the game going"? This seems more like something Adachi figured out long after the fact. It comes out as a bunch of bullshit that sounds correct from a dude who is 5 seconds away from being overtaken by his shadow.

And we do know he didn't find out until later because of the letters, the dungeon deadlines, and the figure in the shopping district.

The letters and the mystery figure in the shopping district

On October 20th and November 5th, Adachi sends the protagonist those letters telling you to quit rescuing people. If the cat and mouse game that Adachi describes as his source of entertainment is, "Namatame pushes people in -> IT saves them", why does he send the letter telling you to stop? Additionally, the letter proves that he been looking for a dead body rather than an infinite loop of throw in -> rescue.

Some people seem to reason that, "he sent the letter because the game was getting boring and now he just wanted to see more people die". But I think the date he sent the first letter indicates that he didn't really grasp what was going on until after Naoto's dungeon, and this is demonstrated by the figure in the shopping district.

Starting with Yukiko's dungeon deadline, a mysterious figure appears in the shopping district on the foggy nights. Here are the relevant dates and everything for the victims, whether the mystery person appears in the shopping district, and what they say:

Yukiko, April 29th, mystery figure appears and says "..."

Kanji, June 4th, mystery figure appears and says "Again..."

Rise, July 9th, figure does not appear

Mitsuo, August 12th, figure does not appear

Naoto, October 5th, mystery figure appears and says "Dammit... Again?!"

Nanako, November 20th, figure does not appear

To summarize:

It shows up for Yukiko, Kanji and Naoto's deadlines

It does not show up for Rise, Mitsuo or Nanako's deadlines

It's obvious by its 3rd and final appearance that it has been showing up expecting a dead body to appear in the shopping district, and it's frustrated that there's no dead body

I'm gonna cut to the chase here: I don't see how this is anyone other than Adachi...? It's expecting a dead body (see: Adachi's letter), it knows that dead bodies appear on foggy nights, its outline even looks like his.

The dates where it doesn't appear (Rise/Mitsuo/Nanako) make sense for what Adachi knows at those points in the story too:

Rise: Adachi saw Namatame's delivery truck drive by during the Rise part and he also knows Rise went missing, but he tries to distract the team by focusing on the photographer they just caught. As an officer, he knows Rise later shows up and is fine so he doesn't show up in the shopping district expecting a corpse

Mitsuo: Adachi put Mitsuo in himself, as an officer he knows Mitsuo turned up and was arrested, thus he doesn't show up in the shopping district expecting a corpse

Nanako: Adachi knows Namatame put Nanako (and himself) in, Adachi knows they're out of the TV and is even at the hospital with you, thus he doesn't show up in the shopping district expecting a corpse

If Yukiko, Kanji and Naoto went missing, and as a police officer Adachi knows they're back home, then would he appear on their dungeon deadlines expecting their bodies if he *also* knows they're who Namatame put into the TV? Him appearing on Yukiko, Kanji and Naoto's deadlines just means he doesn't know that they're who Namatame put into the TV. This might sound insane because the player and the Investigation Team know, but that doesn't mean that Adachi knows too.

Look, honestly, I think Adachi was just jealous of Namatame's rizz

Accidentally murdering Mayumi presents a problem for Adachi. Despite Adachi's bitching about SOCIETY, his complaints about SOCIETY are that he's girlfriendless and stuck in Inaba. This isn't anti-establishment, this is someone who wants to belong to the establishment. He's already sunk down to Inaba. Being a murderer would certainly be worse for his social standing and put him on the outside of the establishment.

But what if no one found out that he's a murderer? And this is where the "frame Namatame" angle comes into play...

I think the real "game" that Adachi was playing all along was the "ruin Namatame's life even more" game. If Adachi was just trying to get away with murder, then he was practically in the clear when the police were desperate to pin the crime on Mitsuo. But he was the one going, "Hey but wait what if the killer is still out there?" and he conveniently shuts up about his suspicions and fear-mongering after Namatame gets apprehended.

I think he specifically wanted it to be Namatame who took the fall for his actions, as the game makes it seem like he has a hate boner for the guy:

We can infer from the bits and pieces we're given that after Adachi was lonely and heard about the Midnight Channel rumor. He tried watching it one night, saw Mayumi (we know from Namatame's flashback that Mayumi did appear on there), awoke his Persona similar to how the protagonist did when seeing Saki, thought Mayumi was his soulmate (which was the rumor about the Midnight Channel), and tried touching the screen. When he gets a chance to meet Mayumi (it seems unclear if he was actually on her security detail or pretended to be so he could talk to her), we see in the flashback that he got angry when he found out that the rumor about her and Namatame being together was true, and put her into the TV. Adachi totally thinks Namatame stole his soulmate (Mayumi) or something.

Adachi reaches out to Saki specifically because he knew she had been talking to Namatame earlier. He misinterprets their interactions to mean that Namatame and Saki were an item after Mayumi's death. When Adachi calls Saki into the station, he tries to force himself on her and she slaps him. He reacts by comparing himself to Namatame - he's not good enough for her? And in Saki goes. He called her in under the guise of asking her questions about the body, and then knowingly put her in the TV to die, and this all started because he thought she was dating Namatame.

Namatame called in to the TV station and says he saw Mayumi and Saki on the TV, and now he sees a 3rd girl. Adachi's misconception that the Midnight Channel is "soulmate magic TV" isn't going to get corrected because he already associated both women with Namatame. If anything, what Namatame said would just reinforce Adachi's misunderstanding. Adachi probably thought Namatame seeing a new girl on the TV means he already had another girl lined up after Saki died. Meanwhile, Adachi himself is still single. I imagine it would be very funny to him if he could manipulate Namatame into killing what Adachi thought was Namatame's next girlfriend.

I imagine that Adachi wasn't really happy to learn that his special power to touch the TV is one that he shared with Namatame.

Seriously, it's like Adachi was jealous of the dude's rizz. Adachi is pretty cringe imo. Love him for that tho.

Adachi's goal during the end of the game

Adachi has a new goal in December, but only after he enters the TV. When you visit Adachi in the TV world in December, he talks about how the shadows see him as a friendly, and wonders if it's because he has the same goal as them. As revealed, his (new) goal is merging reality and the TV world together.

Let's take a look at some of the alternate endings to the game first, because I think they provide some information about this:

If you get a Bad ending (throw Namatame into the TV, or fail to convince your friends), then the game fast forwards to March. The fog is thick, but everyone in town is still human.

If you fail Adachi's dungeon deadline, Naoto calls the protagonist, and you hear her scream as a shadow murders her in reality.

If you do the Accomplice ending, then the game fast forwards to March. The fog is thick, but everyone in town is still human. Adachi asks the protagonist to prove your loyalty by burning the letter that was sent to your house cause if he's the killer then that letter might implicate him.

I feel like it's worth pointing out that only in the case of #2 -- where he's entered the TV world but you fail to meet the deadline -- does the thing about the TV world and the real world merging actually happen.

After his boss fight, he mentions that he has nowhere left to go. And yeah, that makes sense - you've cornered him IRL then jumped into a TV to beat his twink ass. But if the scenarios where he enters the TV being the only situation where the world gets screwed, and there's the flashback where he thinks the TV is dangerous and doesn't wanna go in... It seems that him jumping into the TV and the bit about the worlds being merged must come from his desperation.

I would guess that once he enters the TV world, he makes contact with or gets possessed by or just something involving Amenosagiri, and that's what initiates the plot where the real world and the TV world merge by the end of the year where people get replaced by shadows. We know from the dungeon deadline failure case that this threat was actually serious too.

The "in TV" and "not in TV" distinction feels important. Look at the various bad endings for comparison, where he's just going on Adachi-ing as usual. In these endings, the IT didn't corner Adachi in the hospital and he hasn't entered the TV world. The fog in town is thick in these endings, but it's unclear what else is going on with the metaphysical mumbo jumbo: Is everyone actually going to be replaced by their shadow here too, or is it a visual hint from the developers that the player still has a truth left to uncover if they leave Inaba like this?

I would assume he is (still) trying to get away with murder (see the little "test" he gives the protagonist) in the bad endings. There's no mention of more murders in the Bad or Accomplice endings, but there is the news report about Namatame being the suspect for the murders and him either being dead or awaiting trial. It would seem that by capitalizing on a bunch of teenagers being emotionally distraught after Nanako dies or nearly dies, Adachi finally successfully gets away with murder. Good job, Adachi. It only took you 7 months to figure out the plot dude.

tl;dr

There has to be some truth to his "it's a game, it was fun, I was bored!" sentiments for his shadow to be telling some distortion of the truth to begin with. Like, Adachi probably was likely bored out of his mind in Inaba, and he probably thought it would be incredible if Namatame accidentally killed someone, and him murdering Saki is probably something he did for the hell of it.

But to just accept the explanation for all of his actions as "I did it cause I could" and assume that he really was orchestrating or manipulating the Investigation Team all along is to ignore everything else the game is giving you.

Yes Adachi was bored and he claims the game made him less bored... but he also showed up to the shopping district and is frustrated when there's no dead body. Yes he probably thought it would be incredible if Namatame killed someone... but he stood to benefit if Namatame killed someone and was caught and he had something against the dude. Yes he shoved Saki into a TV cause he could... but the reason why she was there to begin with is because of his imaginary dickwaving contest with Namatame. "It was fun! I did it cause I could!", etc, is just not telling the whole story.

Anyway yada yada vine boom great vegetables.

[the-somewhat-rambling-reviewer]

Cherry Magic Ep 6 (Thailand)

Nice of the rest of the boat to just patiently wait for this private conversation to be finished.

I’m not sure if this was a translation error or not. Achi saying he’s always known Karan’s feelings is incorrect from a character standpoint, but him saying he already knew would be accurate.

Respect when someone says they don’t drink, jerkass.

I do feel genuinely bad for Karan, just like I did for Kurosawa. Both were prepared to be very professional, and both were not only treated horribly inappropriately with it arguably verging into sexual assault territory, especially in Karan’s case, both were penalised for their, actually, relatively mild reactions to being treated so badly.

I did like how this version handled Karan taking a metaphorical bullet for Achi.

Part of me is always going to love how unique the Japanese version is with Adachi really not registering Kurosawa on any significant level until the telepathy came into play, but I do like how these flashbacks set up the present dynamics between the two. Achi never got to know Karan on a deeply personal level back then, but he saw how thorough Karan was, he recognised the kindness Karan extended to him, and unlike in the Japanese version, he truly gained a genuine respect for Karan as a person, whereas, Adachi just had a basic respect for Kurosawa as another human being.

Also, the memory pen thing was sweet and adorable, but it’s a shame Karan went along with it instead of being a little braver and approaching Achi when sober and in a better emotional place. He could have offered the pen back, thanked him, and made an overture of friendship.

What is Achi, the pen warden?

Poor Karan can’t get up the nerve to ask Achi to see a concert with him, but he’s so gone that he’ll take something given to him in a quasi-scolding manner as a cherished gift.

Jinta has a point. I’m not really fond of the romcom trope of a relationship expert suddenly needing to find a partner, but it’s valid to want someone’s credentials before deciding whether or not to spend money on the material they produce.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Jinta and Min end up like that meme, Jinta: You’re flirting with me? Min: Have been for some time, thanks for finally noticing, also, I think I might need to talk to your bestie about his coworker if him being friends with you is any indication on his ability to receive signals.

Achi piecing together all Karan has quietly been doing for him for years was neat.

It’s also nice his reaction is wanting to make sure Karan is okay, feeling sympathy for what Karan has been going through, rather than it being framed as him missing being taken care of.

In an earlier episode, he was worried he was just using Karan due to liking being taken care of, but whether he realised he’s realised it or not, he knows now this isn’t the case.

Did Karan have Achi temporarily blocked, or was his phone turned off?

Oh, for frell’s sake. Pai could have just told Achi the information. She really doesn’t have any right to be so irritated about Rock inviting himself when she’s invited herself to what is clearly something private between her two coworkers.

That being said, her being, look, here’s my phone, ID, and the proper amount of money, so, even if I’m technically still stealing, I’m hoping you’ll allow it, hop on, Achi, I can and will drive this, was awesome.  

Why was Rock the one driving the motorbike instead of the actual driver? Or did Rock just find a nearby motorbike and go hey, I’ll take you to my awesome coworker who might have technically stolen your bike but I’m definitely driving?

I kind of imagine Karan hearing that Pai took Achi on a maybe stolen bike, they ran out of gas, and then, Achi ran in the hot Thailand weather and just immediately going, okay, Achi, we can have whatever type of relationship you want as long as it will ensure you never, ever get into a situation like that again.

I notice Pai rode side-saddle with Rock. I couldn’t actually see how she was sitting with Achi. Please, tell me she didn’t drive sitting side-saddle.

Damn, how far away was the airport? It was afternoon when Achi started running, dusky when Pai and Rock talked, and outright dark when he finally arrived.

Achi’s thought of receiving magic due to something higher favouring Karan is interesting, in-character, and exasperating. I’m not saying he might not be proven right later on, but it’s just as likely someone/something higher took a shine to him and realised the only way he’d get a person who utterly adores him and will always try to treat him right is if something drastic gave him the push to see said person was standing right in front of him, desperate to do just that.

[jesterofinaba]

☤ - a memory of death/loss

(you know what AU this is for)

Memory Meme - No Longer Accepting ☤ - a memory of death/loss Hierophant!Arcana AU

"They're not letting me in. Why aren't they letting me in?"

The hospital hallway was crowded, much too crowded for Adachi's liking. He's standing in front of the closed door to his daughter Naoto's hospital room, his subordinate Dojima by his side, and every member of the self-proclaimed "Investigation Team" behind him. He's trying his best to look as professional as he usually does, his question coming out as a low growl, but without his glasses, his face, arms, and legs riddled with gauze and adhesive bandages, and wearing a much too large hospital gown, he knew he looked nowhere near intimidating. Dojima watched him with a nervous look on his face.

"...I don't know, Adachi-san."

"You told me Naoto's condition suddenly got worse, Dojima." He tries the door again, trying to hide his fear. His daughter had been in a coma since they’d rescued her from Namatame. The news that her condition had dropped so suddenly…

Locked. It took him a second to realize it after he kept tugging on the handle and it wouldn’t budge. “And you brought me here. Didn’t they tell you anything?”

Adachi staggers a little when he steps back from the doorknob, and someone - Tatsumi-kun - holds his arm to steady him, but Adachi’s gaze stays on his subordinate.

“Well, they’d said, uh...”

“Don’t test me right now, old man. Spit it out.”

“...They said they’d have to verify some paperwork before you can go see her. Something about checking to see if you really were legally her guardian.”

Adachi is a thin man, and his meager frame is exacerbated by the hospital gown he’s wearing, but every inch of him shakes, seething with rage. The teenager holding his arm does so easily, effortlessly restraining him when he lunges towards the door.

“Of all the incompetent legal bullshit- they know that I am, I have records-”

“Woah, dude.” Tatsumi pulls him back, and the Hierophant weakly struggles against his grip. Narukami-kun and Satonaka-san are quick to join their friend despite them not really needing to.

While they restrain him, a nurse walks towards them, carrying a stack of papers. Immediately, the group of teenagers part to make room for her, and Adachi is quick to speak again.

“Please tell me I can go in.”

The pop star girl chimes in from behind him, shrill with worry. “Just tell us if she’s gonna be okay!” It’s met with a chorus of agreements from the teenagers behind him, and Adachi admittedly feels slightly less weak in the knees at that.

“I can’t tell you at this time. I’m sorry, Adachi-san, I have to get this doctor’s signature first, then I can let you go see Naoto-chan.” The nurse gives a placating smile that makes Adachi want to throttle her. His teeth are bared as she turns and lets herself into Naoto’s hospital room. He can hear the overlapping chatter of doctors and a commotion of movement, but loudest of all was the frantic beeping of Naoto’s heart monitor. Adachi can feel himself shaking and he pulls forward again.

“No, if she’s in critical condition, I want to see her right n-”

He interrupts himself with a fit of coughing, doubling over and grabbing at his stomach. He can taste blood in his mouth. Shit, he didn’t reopen a wound, did he...?

It didn’t matter.

“-Now.” There’s blood in his teeth when he bares them again, struggling to speak, but the nurse isn’t there to see it. Seconds are ticking by, and Adachi is growing more and more aware of the fact that there’s a chance he won’t be able to be there if- if something’s gone seriously wrong. His heartbeat is already fast, but his breathing quickens too, and he feels himself getting dizzy just standing. 

“Adachi-san, be careful.” Narukami reminds him, taking a hold of his other arm. “You’re bleeding.” 

“Hell if I care.” He immediately snaps back, too harshly. He knew the kid didn’t mind, after everything they’d talked about. He can apologize when he’s not about to tear his hair out in worry or pass out from exhaustion.

The door opens again and Adachi’s breath hitches. He can hear snippets of the conversation between the doctor and the nurse in Naoto’s room over the ever-deafening rushing in his ears - “Oh, you know with adoption, adopted children, you know, it’s always like this-”  before the loud, angry voice of Hanamura-kun cuts them off. 

“HEY! Are you gonna tell us, or not?!”

One of the girls shushes him, but Adachi’s grateful for the interruption, and finally the kids let go of their grip on him and he stumbles forward. Gripping the stitch in his chest, he pushes forward until he sees the doctor in the doorway, face pale. 

“Adachi-san, I’m sorry to tell you, Naoto-chan’s condition is unstable... We’ve tried everything we can, but we’re not sure-”

“Let me see her.” Adachi’s voice dips into the most icy, most poisonous he can get it to go, lips curling into a scowl. All the unfettered anger he’d restrained at everything that’s pissed him off this entire time fueled into that one breathy sentence. The doctor falls silent, as does everyone else in the hospital, and the only thing besides the slowing, irregular beeping of Naoto’s heart monitor he can hear is someone struggling to speak.

“D… Dad…?”

“NAOTO!” His voice raised an octave, but he didn't care. This time, the teens are the one who let go, and it’s the doctor who tries to hold him back. “Sir, we need to tell you, her condition has significantly worsened, we think that she’ll-”

“Shut UP!” He hisses at the doctor, pushing him weakly and slipping past him. He staggers forward, feeling a droplet of blood streak past his mouth towards his chin. “Naoto, I’m here, it’s okay-”

She looked so small in the bed, face pallid, hair laid haphazardly on her face. He can feel his heart in his throat as he eggs at his feet to move him forward faster. Please. Just to the bed. Just make it to the bed.

“...I’m…” Her voice is weak, the beeps from the heart monitor intermittent. “...sor… ry…”

The last beep turns into one long, high-pitched, discordant note, and everything stops.

It’s deafening. The noise is deafening. Everything’s crashing down and Adachi has no idea what to do. 

“No.”

He nearly trips staggering forward. One step. Two. Three. 

“No, no, no, no-”

He was too late. He doesn’t even notice he’s collapsed to his knees until the shattering pain flows through them like fire. His hands reach up to clutch at his head, pulling at his scalp. 

“NO!”

Shaky hands reach out to take his daughter’s in his own. He can almost feel the warmth leaving them.

“No, no, come on, please,” he chokes out a sob, pulling her hand until it meets his forehead, and he grips it tightly as he breaks down. “Naoto-”

Through the water rushing in his ears he can hear the doctor muttering something, and the deafening sound of a pen scratching on paper. “December 5th, 2011. Time of death 19:44:26.”

Hearing the word out loud makes the levee break. 

Death. Naoto’s dead. Because he couldn’t protect her. She died, and she died alone. Because he was shitty enough to not make it in time.

There’s no thought to how utterly pathetic Adachi has to look right now - salty tears intermingling with the blood seeping from his wounds, blood and mucus running down past his nose as he utterly collapses in loud, uncontrolled sobs, Naoto’s small hand held tightly in both of his and pressed against his forehead. 

Adachi doesn’t know how long he stayed there, but a hand clapping on his shoulder causes him to look up. Dojima looks back down at him, his expression unreadable. 

“I’m… I’m sorry, Adachi-san.” His voice is low. He glances around, and Adachi does the same, mindlessly parroting what his subordinate does since his mind essentially stopped running its higher functions. Each of the Investigation Team kids are there. Most of them are crying. The bear’s got hot tears running down his cheeks as he clutches his daughter’s other hand. Dojima-san - Nanako - seems desperate to collect herself, hiding her face in a hand, her cousin’s arm wrapped around her shoulder and his head slumped.

“I don’t know what I’d do if I were you. If this happened to Nanako…” Dojima mutters. “I’d probably run right to his room and-”

“His room.” Adachi’s voice cracked with emotion, but it’s firm. “He’s here?”

“...Yeah. He’s here. Upstairs, by the surgical ward. If you’re gonna go, now’s the time. They’re moving him soon.”

He knew exactly what Dojima was talking about. Immediately, Adachi stands up and the newfound adrenaline from his plan causes him to bolt out of the room and up the stairs, Dojima’s advice giving him a lead despite his struggles to move. The thought of getting even propelling him forward.

Watery droplets of blood stained the sleeve of Naoto’s hospital gown.

When he makes it to the door to Namatame’s room, all he can focus on is that he’s not the suspect, he’s Naoto’s kidnapper, he’s the bastard that didn’t deserve to live another second. The guards in front of his door - men he knows and is in charge of at the station - quickly stop him, easily holding each of his thin arms.

“Let go of me.” He demands, flailing weakly, voice still thick with the poison from before. “I just need to talk to him.”

“Ch-Chief,” one of them interrupts, “you can’t be here… like we said, without permission-”

“Permission?” He fights again as strong as he can, and he feels warm blood blossoming across his hospital gown. “Who gave him permission to kill Naoto? Tell me that, huh?

“To- To HELL with you all!” Another feeble attempt to break free. Adachi’s body is screaming at him to sit down, to stop yelling, but there’s a rage that boils inside him that he will not keep quiet.

“He can’t get convicted- not with the evidence we have. So I want to deliver the law MYSELF! I’ll kill him! I’ll make him PAY! He’s gonna wish he was dead before I even think about shutting off that goddamn light between his eyes. YOU HEAR ME?!”

“Chief!” One of the officers pulls at his arm.

“NO! NAMATAME! YOU KILLED NAOTO! She’s- She’s- SHE’S ALL I HAVE!”

That final scream causes a tear in the stitches that run across the bridge of his nose. The wound reopens, and blood rushes down his face, and it once again mingles with pathetic, hot tears. Immediately after, he weakly clutches at his stomach, and when he sees his hand it’s red and soaked with his blood. Stupid, now that he thinks about it. He’d always been queasy at the sight of blood. At the sight, and looking at his blood leaving puddles on the floor, Adachi’s stomach lurches and his vision darkens. 

“I- I won’t be able to- I can’t- go on… without… without...”

Blood-soaked and tear-stained, Adachi loses consciousness and collapses to the floor.

[thedetectiveofinaba]

@inabaslasthope continued from here!

“Hmm… Nothing that serious, I wanted to try the one trick which is part of the youth culture I learned during my years at Tokyo. I think Sakura-san called them ‘memes’ and told me how you can use them in fitting situations. This would be one, wouldn’t you say so?” That, and it had been amusing to her as well to see confusion in his face. Tough times called for complex ways of entertainment and this was definitely one. If I ever get back I have to visit Leblanc and tell Sakura-san and Sakamoto-san that I 'memed’ someone I dislike. This was a succeed and so worth it.

She mentioned how he missed the point of her question. Maybe she should’ve specified it better… Oh well, she got a bunch of details and it was a huge plus. Especially parts on him knowing what was going on and consciously working towards Izanami’s goal got her interest. She closed her eyes for a moment when Tohru was going on with the details to see if this one had the potential as well and opened them. She wasn’t now using Yamato to avoid the mass effects of this fog. “I now assume you have the potential and like the Adachi-san of my Japan I dare to assume that you’re powerful in this area. It is an accomplishment Shadows here haven’t hurt you deadly nor the Fog Goddess haunted you.”

She sighed and held the urge to glare at him. To think he had been a partial cause for this - as she already knew from her previous case experiences and Telephone Pole Murder case files - and showed little signs of regret… It caused her blood to boil a bit. “The ignorance and immaturity you still have is still unbelievable: merely of your own wishes to not feel bored you endangered this whole town and fled like a coward. Then again, for you it’s only less than a year in this mess and you realized already how you might have fucked up, so maybe you have hope to grow up. No wonder Kana shows great distaste towards you… you truly are still shady and gaining the trust back will take months.”