View source for Smouldering (Tomoyo Daidouji)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2016/04/25
|Location=Tomoeda-865
|Synopsis=Tomoyo drives herself to distraction.
|Cast of Characters=648
}}
The day has come to an end, and Tomoyo settles into bed at a reasonable time. Quite unusual for her. Normally, her work would keep her up until the early hours, but with the Boutique burned down... perhaps she could try and remake the outfits that were lost, but all her notes are gone too. Maybe she can reach out to customers and ask again for their specifications, but the time it would take to remake them... no, they would probably rather just go to another tailor.


Hot tears that she had been keeping inside for days are finally allowed to trail down her face. Seeing the husk of all her efforts, breathing in the smoke of everything she worked on... it made it real. And even though everyone had tried to cheer her up, reminded her that she can rebuild, offered to help in finding the culprit...


Emotions aren't the most rational things. This, Tomoyo knows all too well. She attends a high school, she sees this fact every day. But it's been a long while since she felt the fact so keenly. The whole Jack Slash affair had her fretful, but at least she had a clear target for it all. Now, she is adrift on a raging ocean of emotions, the only possible port being the identity of the arsonist. Until she knows the who and the why, she'll never rest easy.


Who would do this?


Why did they do it?


For the life of her, she can't think of anything. She likes to think of herself as polite and inoffensive. Maybe an ardent of Slash? But if so, why now and not sooner? And even if she did find out who did it... then what? She'll ask them why they did it? A small, shameful part of her demands some kind of retribution, but is such a thing hers to collect?


Her mind wanders to a note on her desk, crumpled and scrawled like it was hurriedly sent.


TOMOYO

Figured out who did it

Will find them and get results

Going to be gone for a couple days though sorry

(for real this time not lying so you don't expect I'll be around)

-Ren


He was getting into that strange mood he was in last time, over this. Maybe she had been right earlier, in the burnt-out ruins. Maybe she should have insisted that busy Elites not bother with all this. Ultimately, it's a small-scale crime, and the insurance should cover rebuilding, if she decides to try again. The police will probably find the culprit, and she would have wasted everyone's time...


Tumultuous thoughts roll through her mind, driving her to distraction. The tailor rolls over and presses her face against the pillow to dry her face. Without any projects to distract her, she'll never be free of these thoughts. She scrambles mentally, trying to grab a hold of something else, anything else to ruminate on...


She freezes. The very effects of what she thinks of.


She unknowingly bought poison from someone untrustworthy.


As a result, the poison was taken by someone unsavoury.


Because of her, people could be suffering.


She should do something.


Her bedside lamp is turned on as she sits up and crosses to the desk again. It should be... yes, she took that letter from the dealer home. Right here, an address. If she can't act as a tailor, perhaps she can act as a Unionite. Here before her is someone who is party to injustice. She can't sit on this any more, especially now that she has so much free time.


The early night's sleep is called off, as something begins to smoulder in Tomoyo's core. A desire to serve justice? The flames that will consume her if she doesn't keep busy? Even she cannot say.