2025-08-23: Forced to Wait
- Log: Forced to Wait
- Cast: Miho Ijuuin, Yua Ooshiro
- Where: Aoba Penthouse
- OOC Date: 2025-08-23
- IC Date: Friday, June 29 2012
- Summary: Miho has to work to find Yua, when she doesn't return home that evening and can't be reached by telephone... and she doesn't have the liberty of just walking out of the office without assuaging her coworkers first, either. She arranges for Yua to get to safety, and finally manages to reach her -- and after some struggles, hears the story of what happened to her, when the Joker Killer attacked Sevens. Yua's conflict over their own dark path comes out in the wake of it, but her devotion to Miho is greater than her desire to atone, much to Gretchen's displeasure. Despite all these hurdles, though, Miho still manages to make Yua smile...
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"Ijuuin-sama," the conversation started, and Miho Ijuuin indeed listened. Stuck at work still, she carved out the time because Eiko doesn't contact her unless it's very important... and Yua has not been in contact, as it turns out. Not unheard of, but concerning all the same. Miho tried to call her; it went to voicemail. She texted instead, and received no response.
A few calls ensued; Miho had Eiko take care of it, while she started trying to extricate herself from meetings and paperwork.
So it was that she had a car sent to the Cardboard Dragon once Eiko located Yua there.
"Ijuuin-kun, I need those papers by..."
"You will have them tomorrow morning."
"Eh? But you're already right here..."
"I am leaving for the day."
"What, this early? Well, I--"
"Good evening, sir."
But here?
A knock at the Cardboard Dragon's door later...
Yua will be given a place in the car.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Seiji Sahashi appears, at the door of the Cardboard Dragon; Yua, her makeup ruined by sweat and tears, takes his hand to help her down the stairs.
There are deep gashes, torn through the back of her leotard... though the wounds that were laid there are red welts, rather than anything that would suggest the blood soaked into the black.
"Seiji-san," she says, and her voice is fragile as spun glass.
When she's escorted up to the penthouse, Eiko greets her with a cup of tea and due concern. She sits sideways on their fine leather couch, legs folded beneath her, rocking softly back and forth as she clutches the hot drink between her hands.
Eiko can't really help her, though; it's in the name she does say, as she looks down into the steam.
"Mimi..."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Seiji is aware that there are things in this world that are not as they seem. He would not question it regardless; he has a job, and that job is to get Yua home.
Eiko has already informed Miho that Yua has arrived. And Miho...
Miho taps the car door as she waits to get back to her apartment building. She is looking out the window, and she is concerned. Her suit and gloves conceal her Mark, but nothing can conceal the hardness in her eyes as she contemplates her job... the fact that she was forced to wait to go to Yua.
That hardness is gone by the time the door opens. "I'm back," Miho says, ritualistic, as she opens the door and steps inside. She is still in one of her suits.
Her eyes immediately scan for--
There.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"W-welcome home," Yua's voice ventures out, from the loungeroom, and the way it hitches and wavers is a story unto itself.
She has to look over her shoulder to find her; the damage is evident. One hand braces against the leather cushion as Yua extends her arm out -- still quite graceful, as if no action she makes can be anything but, standing in stark mockery to her ashen face and creased brow -- to place the teacup, cla-clink, against the elegant glass tabletop.
She has to take another moment before she can think of rising, though, looking down at her decorated hand as her left comes back to press against gravity alongside it.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
No, Yua's grace is innate, a hard-won product of years of effort. Miho has seen her be graceful in situations where no one should be. ...Most of which are harmelss. This is not.
Miho hears Yua's welcome and closes the distance quickly, stopping only to switch to her in-house slippers.
"Ijuuin-sama," Eiko says, and bows. "I will be in the other room." She can be called if they need something... But for now, she'll offer them privacy.
"Thank you," Miho says, and finishes closing the gap to sit down next to Yua and reach out to hold her. "Yua," she says gently. "What happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
As it happens, Yua doesn't have to get up, because Miho comes to her. She tilts forward, when Miho sits, and all but faceplants into her lap; for a moment, Miho has an excellent view of those gouges across her back, what must have been deep scratches before they were healed.
"Mimi," she murmurs, into her lap.
"I didn't get to make dinner today... mm... sorry..."
That surely can't be it, but it's the first miserable thing she thinks of, clutching at the hem of Miho's finely-pressed suit.
She's quiet, a few moments longer, though Miho can feel the way she quakes in her skin. "It served me right," she says, at length, "but he didn't do anything. And... and I just wanted to help, but I ruined everything, and, I said I didn't like lions and now everyone knows, and... and Myucchi got hurt protecting me and... I could have stopped him but they'd be cruel to you, so I just sat there and, I didn't do anything--!"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho sees them, all right. But her gift is not healing; there is no more she can do on that front for now. And...
"That's all right," Miho answers of dinner. It is frankly the furthest thing from her mind at the moment, and Miho still tries to hold Yua and in the way that she quakes...
"I do not think this harm served you right," she says firmly first. "...But I do not understand."
"I will check on Myunghon," she assures Yua, "If you do not go yourself. But please tell me..."
"From the beginning, what happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Miho doesn't think she... oh, Yua realises, as she goes on, her explanation was just too confused. (Is that why?)
"Mm," she hums, and makes the effort to lift herself up on a hand, reaching up to grasp Miho's shoulder as she swings her legs across her lap and settles in against her chest. That it took her so long to do so is its own comment, really.
Yua buries her face at the crook of Miho's neck, still all too eager to hide herself, still trembling.
"It was after lessons," Yua drags the chronological account from herself, with effort. "After paperwork, too... I went to find Watanabe-san, remember him?" Yua's spoken of him over dinner, now and then; one of her colleagues at Sevens, trying to secure the position of Vice-Principal so that he support his family, and yet a man who struggles to ask for help with all the demands assigned to him. She's been concerned about how his long hours must be affecting his wife and children, so she's been trying to help him get home earlier, the last few times she's been there. "But no sooner had I warned him against staying home too late..."
She swallows, shifting in Miho's lap, her legs curling up around her as her feet rest at the couch cushions. "The Joker Killer came... invoked the Mark. I -- I wanted to protect him, Mimi, I did, but -- but I knew they'd come, they'd see me! If I showed them who I really was... the Powers that Be would be angry with you... and they wouldn't let me get away with it, either. So... so when his Hellhounds came, I... oh, don't think I was particularly brave, I was just grasping him at that moment and they must have wanted to get through me to him." The wounds on her back, then. "The Joker, he told them to eat poor Watanabe-san, that's the one he wanted to kill... I managed to Negotiate with them, somehow, but..." Yua takes a breath, grasping tightly at Miho's shoulder.
"They did come," she says, a moment later. "T--the very officer we tried to kill on the Joker's behalf, the man, um, Suou-san... Shimizu-san, the woman who does the odd jobs, and some of the children who we were assaulting back at the television studio... another one, too, I think she was her friend, t-though she was really quite remarkable, she didn't just have one Persona. And this dashing Prince of a boy, I'd not seen him before, he was working with Suou-san... and that unsettling woman, the one who invokes Badb. She knew what I did." Yua certainly thinks so, anyway. "Them, and..."
Another breath. "... h-his wife. She Awakened to save him, but... but oh, Mimi, she thought I was having an affair with him! A-and the Joker said, said how lions kill their babies when the male lion dies and another comes in, or, or something, you know, just saying women move between men easily like that I think it was, and he said she could kill the other lioness and it took me a minute but I realised she meant me and -- and I think I was poisoned, I wasn't thinking well at all, I tried to tell her it wasn't like that, but I said I didn't like lions so now everyone knows I'm aberrant! T-that's not what dad said when he said I should tell someone, I'm so stupid!"
Well, now she's crying.
"And one of the children healed everyone but it also affected me and they could see because that boy had knocked me from my chair because he'd lost control for a moment and I stopped bleeding and now it doesn't matter that I let everyone get hurt everyone knows and it's ruined!"
Crying AND catastrophicising!
"A-and then there was a lot of fire and Myucchi got hurt and they were going to send them to hospital so me and that boy got them back to the Cardboard Dragon but now they're hurt and they're hurt because I didn't do anything and I could have stopped it and I didn't because I'm selfish and evil and bad and I helped protect the Joker so all this is my fault anyway!"
Yua may have started straying from relaying just the facts.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
It is not why Miho believes as she does--but she does need to hear the details. After lessons...
"I remember," Miho says of Watanabe. The Joker Killer...
"You must protect yourself first," Miho says gently then. "...It sounds as if you still risked yourself for him." That doesn't sit great with Miho, but on the other hand, Yua is a kind woman. So that's fine. "You negotiated... How very clever."
She is worried, but keeping her voice steady.
Miho strokes Yua's hair gently. "I see..." So all of them are Persona-users. And another one, with multiple Personas.
"His wife? ...That is well," Miho thinks. "In a just world, she should have the right to defend her man. But..." A frown. "It is unfortunate that she had that misconception. Though, you..." Ah. Yua...
"It is fine," Miho says gently. "We will take care of it if it becomes a problem."
Soothing, gently, she tries to talk. And that boy...
Hrm. "People may not have noticed--and if they noticed, they may not know what it means. Nothing is ruined yet."
Myunghon... Hm. "You are none of these things," she says. "The fault lies with the Joker Killer, and whoever called him. Yes, we have protected him... perhaps our hands are not totally clean. But I tell you this, Yua:"
"If it is evil to protect you, and work towards our perfect world, then I will walk proudly and overthrow the Devil himself."
"You are what matters to me, my love. Remember that."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"If he got hurt, there's no depth of shadow which would soothe him," Yua says, sadly. "Well, that's what I was thinking... a normal man can't survive it the same way." And with a small noise, she says, at least a little proud of herself: "I danced for them..."
Of course she'd be proud; spotting those turns is hard enough at the top of her game, let alone poisoned and injured.
She at least seems soothed by Miho's fingers, against her hair; she lifts a hand, to tug it all free of its hairband, letting it tumble down over her shoulders as the scrunchie becomes a bracelet over her wrist. There. Now it's easier, right?
Yua keeps on listening to Miho, nosing at her neck, and she sighs when she makes her brave declaration. Finally she manages to lift her head, to look Miho in the eye -- for as ever she can only really see one, from her perspective, when the air's at this vibration -- with all the pain and guilt reflected in hers, warring with the warm feelings she gives her.
"Mimi... oh... you know, they were saying that? Since that Joker, he thinks he's fixing the world, too, and one of those children declared that of course she'd break everything to spite him... you know, even if it isn't the will of the Powers, we... we'll..."
Her eye shuts, briefly, against more tears. "Oh, I don't know what I'm feeling," she admits, though she sounds quite pained. "Hearing that, I'm happy, but somehow I'm sad just the same... I was telling dad, I wanted to be normal, but it's never going to be that way for us, is it? We're always... pushing against... and I brought you to that place," she adds, her voice hushed.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"...Yes," Miho says. "It is reasonable, when you're strong, to share that strength with others. I worry, because he is my friend less than you are my love... But I think you made the right decision." To dance for them? "I am proud," she says. "That must have been difficult in those circumstances."
Stroke, stroke. It's much easier now.
Miho looks right back into Yua's. Pain and guilt...
"Children make bold proclamations," Miho says. "...Perhaps she will manage it. But perhaps not."
"It's all right, not to know," Miho says quietly. "It's all right. ...And..."
To be normal. "I was never going to be normal," she admits. "...Not with the dreams. With... everything. So don't feel that you dragged me into it."
"Yes, I did many things to secure your safety," she says. "And perhaps I might not have, if it had not been necessary. ...But maybe it would have been. For the sake of my dreams, for the True World..."
She is thoughtful. "He thinks he's fixing it, does he? I wonder." A shake of her head. "I must face him, one day. ...In conversation if not in battle. Regardless of what the Powers wish."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"I'm happy," Yua says, hearing Miho's praise, though her smile could be broken by little more than a stiff breeze. "Mm, it was really hard..."
Miho's fingers through her hair make things a little easier, though. Her soothing reassurances that she doesn't have to know how she feels helps, too.
Yua's hand presses to Miho's chest, as she looks to her, admitting how far normality's always been from her shores. "Oh... Mimi..." It's true, isn't it? It's not just that Yua has these feelings for women, it's... Miho always knew they were meant for each other, too. "Yeah... we were always both... outsiders. We need to forge our own way forward..."
... but is she strong enough to do it, she wonders, when she can't hide behind the will of the Powers that Be? It's hard enough to strike them down when she can insist it isn't her call...
"He scares me," Yua admits, glancing down. "But... but he... you know, he looked at me... as he drew a sword from my shadow. My heart was disquiet, then... and I know I need to see him again."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho is glad she can give Yua at least a moment to be happy, even if it's fragile. In the wake of all this, it's a precious thing.
Miho looks down into Yua's eye still. Miho knew it. And, well... "Yes," Miho answers. "We always were. If not for you, I would still be. ...But this way, we can be outsiders together."
Miho will be strong. It is what she must do.
"...It is reasonable to be afraid of a madman who kills freely," Miho allows. "A sword from your shadow..."
Miho nods. "Then we'll meet him together, when it is time. Together."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"I never want you to be alone again," Yua says, heartfelt, and for all her struggles she knows it is true; she would sooner follow Miho into Hell than make her way to Heaven alone.
That's why Gretchen won't forgive her.
And it shows on her face, the fingers which curl around her heart and crush, in that one vengeful and discordant moment; though perhaps the widening of her eye and grasp of her hand is just a natural response to contemplating Sudou's violence. Of course, under the drugs, it is a disagreement which soon passes -- and Yua pushes the unsettled expression from her face, to smile, in all her fragility, to her fiancee.
Miho's strength is Yua's safety.
"I don't need to be afraid, if you're there to protect me... it'll be okay, if you're there. That's perfect, Mimi..."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho smiles at Yua, and lets her fingers rest where she's been stroking her blue hair. "I know," she says. "And I am glad for that."
But... a moment. A moment, where Yua has trouble, and Miho frowns lightly, worried lines on her face. But that smile...
"Very well," Miho says, as if that smile is itself an answer.
"Yes. I will protect you."
...Somehow, from this too.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Miho's glad, but her heart --
Oh, Yua just... can't stop arguing with herself.
She lays her head on Miho's shoulder, gazing up to her from a closer position. "Thank you," she breathes, her hand playing at her opposite arm, feeling the firmness beneath her suit. "I love you..."
She is quiet, like this, for long moments; perhaps Miho can feel the way her heart decelerates, from rapid back to calm. Her knee taps at the back of the couch beside them, and this calms her, too.
Miho can hear, just as well, the way her breath draws in deeper than it did in the last instroke; the cue that she's about to speak.
"Gretchen's mad at me," she explains, and perhaps at once Miho can understand why it took her so long to say so; if there is any relationship more intimate than theirs, surely it could only be the contentious bond Yua shares with her Persona. "Because I'm a sinner. Because I won't atone. Well, I thought I'd rather walk with you to Hell... but I won't apologise for that. I won't go to Heaven without you! Go on, say something!" Her tone grows sharp, but she's not looking at Miho as she demands it, glaring as she glances over her shoulder.
... of course, she receives no reply.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"I love you," Miho replies. Miho waits. She hears it, she sees it, and Miho does not object to a little tapping, a little moving. She just waits for Yua to speak again.
Gretchen... Yes. That could be difficult. "I see," Miho answers. "...The drugs help with that." It's not really a question, but it's not entirely a statement. "I do not begrudge Gretchen having opinions on the matter... But I feel you should be able to make your own decisions."
But is Miho really denying Yua Heaven in this way?
"...Well," she says. "Tonight we will have baths. It will help your body recover."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Yeah... the drugs." Yua's gaze grows a touch distant, as she looks back to Miho. She wonders: does each pinprick take a year from her life? Two? Or is it more relative than that, more...
She makes a small, sad noise, absently adjusting Miho's collar from where she'd skewed it with her self. "I wish she wasn't so mean to me," Yua admits, quietly, because the disagreement isn't just one way. "I know it's hard for her, after what happened, but... but it's hard for me, too!"
... Gretchen would say so. But then, of course, Gretchen denied Faust's faux salvation on the dawn of her own execution, as he tried and failed to drag her from her dungeon. It was only through her atonement that she saw the light of God. And Yua...
Well, Yua went with Miho and Myunghon, rather than stay in the dark.
Yua puffs out a breath, as she looks up to Miho. "... I want to use one of those darling little lavender bath bombs I found," she ventures, slowly, asserting her own desires over the other's yearning for their final absolution. "And... will you do my hair?" There's so much of it, of course, she naturally turns to Miho for help cleaning it properly.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
That soft noise and admission touch Miho's heart again. "Yes," Miho answers, to indicate that she wishes too. What happened, well... It's difficult for both of them. And Miho has learned that to care for one, she must care for the other.
"Certainly," Miho answers, encouraging Yua in this little act of desire. "And I will, gladly. I so adore your long hair..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua's cheeks colour, sweetly, as she thinks of Miho's adoration. "I'm happiest when you do it!" She declares, and she does sound happy, by some miracle, despite the horrors she's witnessed today. "Feeling your fingers through my hair is so calming... let's have a long bath today, okay? Today was really too much... Mimi, I even broke my phone, so I couldn't even call you or Recchi for help!"
(Could Miho have come to save her, even if she'd managed to reach her?)
She tilts her head, biting at her lip. "Oh, yeah... I'll need a new one..."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
It's nice to see some color in Yua's cheeks. Miho smiles. "Good," she says. "We will. That is exactly what we will do."
The phone, though... Miho shakes her head. "We will replace it," she says.
Perhaps she could've called, and perhaps Miho or Remi would have come. ...Maybe. And maybe Miho would have had to burn some bridges to make it happen.
"Do not worry. Things are easily replaced. You are not."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Yay!" Yes, Yua, a grown-ass woman of twenty-two of God's own years old, just replied to this plan with an unironic 'yay!'. Worse: her smile grew so bright she just about sparkled.
Is she real????
Yua at least doesn't dwell too long on how difficult it would have been for Miho to come to her aid; what's important, to her, is deciding that she would come protect her.
"Haa... I'm embarrassed I broke it..." Yua sighs, because in Yua's head, a phone is still a considerable household expense, let alone one which would probably come with a contract and of course they'd have to figure out one which wouldn't end up bankrupting them on the sly. ... just because Yua lives in a penthouse and has a chauffeur, that doesn't necessarily mean she's absorbed that they're rich. "And my leotard, too..." Because of course it's been clawed up by a Hellhound, and it would be terribly improper to wear it again.
"But... I'm glad I'm more important," Yua adds, smiling to Miho. Her cheeks colour anew, as she says, "... actually, you'd say I'm the most important, right? I'm happy..."
Miho's loving speech landed! Yua was listening through her distress!!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Unironic 'yay'. Miho smiles. Of course Yua is the cutest! She sparkles! And Miho loves that about her.
She's very real, probably.
"It's fine," Miho assures Yua again of the phone. Because it really is; Miho can replace it like breathing. It's just not a problem. But the leotard, "We will replace that too."
"Yes," Miho confirms. "Yes, you understand me."
"...You are the most important."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yes, Yua is surely real, unless one day she disappears in a puff of sparkles. Poof.
When Miho reassures her the lost things are fine -- they're replaceable -- Yua believes her, reassured and smiling. And...
And Yua understands her, and Miho knows just how much Yua values that, when that understanding isn't always obvious to her. "Really, I'm so happy," she says, again, tilting her head up to nuzzle her cheek against hers. "I really appreciate it. I love you! Memimiiiii~"
Her heart might be battered, but still, it's full. "I feel the same way about you!" She adds, explicitly, as she pulls back to look at her again.
The reason she can get back up, again and again, after the world keeps knocking her down...
Miho's not alone, but she's surely a big part of it.