2025-08-25: Lost in Translation
- Log: Lost in Translation
- Cast: Shinjiro Aragaki, Yua Ooshiro
- Where: Paulownia Mall
- OOC Date: 2025-08-25
- IC Date: Sunday, July 01 2012
- Summary: Yua runs into Shinjiro while she's out shopping, and the two talk about Myunghon for a while, before Yua encourages Shinjiro to come back to school. But when Shinjiro tries to encourage Yua to abandon him, Yua hears something she thinks is obvious: that he cannot be helped because he too is trapped in the NWO's machinations. She tries to reach out to him... as he believes, all the while, that she is also tormented by doing something awful with her Persona. Each blinded by their own grief, they cannot see the way they're talking past each other.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
It is a warm (but not yet hot) day at Paulownia Mall. It's good shopping weather, and people are already hanging out at Gigolo Arcade and Chagall Cafe, since Club Escapade hasn't opened yet.
Near the central fountain is a few benches, and on one of them is a very recognizable truant (luckily it's Sunday though). Clad in his winter coat and beanie, Shinjiro Aragaki sits with a bag from Aohige Pharmacy, containing various medicines to try new types to see if any can stave off his coughing, thanks to a payday from doing jobs for Myunghon. (So far, the result is 'none of them can').
After the Joker Killer and Kaneshiro incidents, Shinjiro has had a lot to think about. He's active again for sure, but that means Akihiko and Mitsuru will believe he has a responsibility to them. In many ways, he does, but... he can't do that anymore.
Shinjiro is people-watching, just a bit, so it's not clear he's a little lost in thought. He seems unoccupied right now. Maybe even a bit bored.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Sunday... is a good day to go shopping! Yua's gone out on the town to look for some nice things in the shops.
And why would she come out here? Why, for the antiques store, of course! Mayoido Antiques carries all sorts of gems which are worth perusing. Or worth handing over, at that.
She comes out of the store with a long package, thoughtfully concealed in a box and a bag she can carry -- and another bag, of course, because she's found plenty of charming little knick-knacks in there. She shuffles them around to reach into her handbag -- in her black dancer's leotard, as if she's going to the ballet instead of out on the town, she doesn't exactly have pockets, though she does have a lovely sheer black skirt going down to her knees -- ready to find her new phone and call her chauffeur to come fetch her...
... when she spies a wild youth!
Yua takes a moment to think, and then slips her phone into her bag, walking up to the bench Shinjiro's sitting on instead. "Hello," she smiles, to him, warmly. "Are you waiting for someone...?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro has never considered much about Mayoido Antiques. He knows the rumor about supernatural materials, but he rarely HAS any, so he doesn't really have a reason to visit.
As Yua approaches and smiles warmly, Shinjiro looks up, face stony for a moment. Oh no, teacher! But also... a friend of Myunghon who's off-duty as a teacher so she probably won't harass him, right? He considers how to respond as he relaxes his expression, before placing his pharmacy bag in his coat. "No, I'm not."
From this closer position, Yua might notice that his clothes are worn and patched, as if he's worn the same coat pretty much every day for two years. (He has.)
"...how are you holding up?" he decides to ask instead of leave it awkwardly at that, appraising her more for obvious injuries than combat-readiness, as he still thinks she's a civilian, having been too berserk to notice her getting healed. She's wearing her dancer's leotard even out here... "Sorry if I hurt you back there."
He rubs the back of his head, as if he doesn't know how to apologize for feeling like he was close to nearly repeating his most traumatic event in history, especially to someone he can't give any form of context whatsoever. It feels important, even so.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua's leotard is open in the back; those red welts are still there, still able to be glimpsed, though they're healing up well. Of course, he has to look at her back, for that, so he'll be limited to seeing it when she's turning around to take a seat on the bench beside him. A teacher's sitting with him! He's in danger!!
"I'm doing just fine," Yua smiles, gently, to him, placing her bags down on the ground. He thinks she's a civilian; she plays the part. Pay no attention to the store she just came from. Surely you don't have to be supernatural to go to a store in the mall. She must just not be able to buy the good shit. "And please don't worry about anything... I might not look like it, but I'm pretty tough!" She all but sparkles, as she smiles to him.
"Are you all right, though?" She asks, her one visible eye frowning with concern. (The other is obscured by a large, black eyepatch across the left side of her face. ... apparently, she wasn't tough enough to get out of whatever happened to her before she started teaching everywhere without losing an eye?) She pauses, delicately, for a moment. "It's not that anything partcularly untoward happened that you'd need to apologise for in the first place," she tiptoes through the facts, "since of course nothing of the sort would ever occur at Sevens." She might be a part-timer, but she's still on their staff; she's aware of what they're saying, about the incident. "But if we were to imagine a distressing incident had happened, I'm sure you could agree it would be difficult for any teenager who was caught up in it... no?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro is looking right at Yua and is observant, so he notices the welts, though his mind immediately moves off them when she says she's fine. Instead, he worries about something else... the fact a teacher decided to sit next to him to talk instead of go on with her business. Leave him alone, he's just a sad guy!
Shinjiro glances back to Yua. The eyepatch... he doesn't know the cause of that, and it's not his business, but he thinks back to Myunghon for a brief moment. He grimaces either way, especially as Yua asks about him...
And denies what happened. He knows she knows; supernatural cover ups like that don't change the memory. She's just towing party line.
"Yeah, you're right," he says in a tone that sounds like he's simply playing along, unwilling to push it. "But I'd be fine. I always am, I've survived worse... hypothetically. In such a situation, I'd just be glad no one died. That's more important than me."
Even though he says he's fine, nothing about him looks fine. He doesn't look out of fitness, but he does look vaguely unhealthy.
"You know Myunghon, right? They've been good to me." He tips his head down, as if thinking about that. Has he really been able to reciprocate? He wonders...
"Do you know the types of things they'd want as a gift? Trying to make them feel appreciated," he suddenly asks. He seems to very much care about them - after all, he immediately went to their side, and he had a feeling they wouldn't want to go to the hospital... not that he'd ever really admit it that way.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua wishes she didn't have to, but...
She shakes her head, gently. "Don't think so little of yourself," her words are gentle, too. "At least... I'm glad to see you're still alive, too. Or -- ah -- I would be."
Even if she can't quite say he's well.
She smiles, though, when Shinjiro brings Myunghon up. "Myucchi is one of my very best friends!" She chirps, brightly. "They saved me!" And whether that might be really quite dire, as a statement...
"Their favourite things are works by old writers," she says, and says it a little queerly. (No, strangely, she's not a... she was talking about lions, back then. Just lions!) "They like foreign ones, too... ahhh, let me think... like, Strindberg? Master Olof, Miss Julie, the Father? Or Baudelaire, he penned les Fleurs du mal, or, ahh, les Paradis artificiels," her pronunciation on those names is really quite on point, even when it starts getting into French. "Well, if you saw, the Cardboard Dragon sells old books like that... actually, it's because Myucchi really likes the things people wrote back then!"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"Tch," Shinjiro responds when he's called out for thinking little of himself. It's a little rude, but he doesn't mean it to completely dismiss them, he's okay talking... but he clearly does think little of himself, in some way or another.
On the subject of 'Myucchi' saving Yua, Shinjiro nods once. "They're good at that. They've helped a lot of people in Hirasaka, whether they believe it or not... glad they have some strong friends in their corner." He probably can't be that for them...
Though, as Yua starts rattling off old authors and books and French, Shinjiro blinks for a moment. After a moment of processing and silence... "I read true crime." He says it like it sums up exactly what he knows about what she just said.
Even so... "Maybe I can get them something nice, then... a first edition, or a manuscript, or something." Where's he gonna get that kind of money, though... he'll have to work on that.
"Yeah, I know," he says about the Cardboard Dragon books. "I usually give gifts in the form of food, but..." He trails off, as if he knows that won't work here.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua's smile only grows more concerned, hearing Shinjiro blow her off. This poor boy...
"Myucchi knows some very strong people," she smiles, as well, to speak of her dear friend. "I'm not really... well, in that sense... but please don't worry!" She interrupts her own worries, smiling again. "I know everyone will support them, too!"
She's very positive. Maybe she reads Coolest.
Shinjiro says he reads true crime, though, and Yua giggles. Like -- actually giggles, hand to her mouth, not realising she's calling attention to the strange decoration on her right hand in the process. (A slip of fabric stretches from a ring around her middle finger to a bracelet at her wrist, obscuring the back of her hand.) "Try the works of Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant," again, flawless pronounciation, even though that feels like the world's worst tongue twister. "Myucchi always told me how de Maupassant wrote about the crimes of our human hearts... perhaps you'd like him, too!" Dear God, is he going to have to learn French. THIS IS WHAT HE GETS FOR TALKING TO A TEACHER!
She sighs, though, when Shinjiro brings up his usual strategy. "Believe it or not," she smiles, a touch more sad, "I'm much the same... but food could be a little tricky for them, okay? Like, ah... hmm... it seems like you're very troubled by death," she just says it, out loud, without pretense. "So if you got the kind of gift a gothic boy might enjoy, with the bats and the gravestones and the skeletons, it might make you upset, even if the gift was given with all the best intentions. No? There are these things, in life, for everyone... things which we need to be more delicate around. And if it's a normal thing to be put off by in society, like death," for indeed it is quite normal in Japanese society, "that might never come up... but if the thing which is complicated for you is a seemingly normal thing like food, it can be hard, you know? Like -- like -- ahh, how to explain this..." She sighs, looking down at her hand, for a moment. "Well, let's take me," she says, a touch more slowly. "If you ring a bell, I'll grow quite cross... because I heard bells at a difficult time in my life. But someone ringing a bell, they think they're not doing anything to hurt anyone, you see? The action is neutral, but it still doesn't sit well with me."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro nods once, even as Yua becomes more concerned. She's not pushing him, so...
BUT SHE'S TRYING TO GET HIM TO LEARN FRENCH?! "Maupassant... I'll, uh, write that down." He's telling the truth, but he pauses. "...how do you write that out?" He pulls out a pen and a tiny notebook he's been keeping his Joker Killer notes on, moving to write it out once instructed. "...is he in Japanese at all?"
Though, then, Yua sighs and explains that Myunghon has issues with eating. She also says he's troubled by death, and he turns his head at that to 'tch' again, having been read like a book. "...yeah," he responds about the eating.
Shinjiro seems like he'll leave it there, until he continues. "I actually made them a meal, when they stopped by the place they're housing me at. They ate it, but they explained some things in the process. I've been trying to help them find a way to get nutrition without.... upsetting their senses? I guess is the word." A pause. "I considered freezing some form of protein, like peas or that powdered stuff. The ice is crunchy, so they'll get the 'fun' of the texture without any other issues."
He's trying to dance around Myunghon's actual issue. He doesn't know how much they've shared.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Here," Yua takes the pen, and writes down his name -- using the English alphabet, and then, again, with the Japanese translation. Her handwriting is... it's...
it's so cute
"There are Japanese translations of some of his works," she adds, encouragingly. "Look it up online! You're good at that these days, right? Ah, feels like just yesterday we scarcely even had the internet on our phones..." It feels that way because she disappeared for four years. Anyway.
She tilts her head, when Shinjiro shares what he's trying. "You're very clever," she smiles, at length, because he's not the only one dancing. But what a good boy, to think of the same thing she did right away! "Mm... try making things blander, okay? And consider vegetables, for protein. There are many supplements you can add to a meal, too. It's very sweet of you to care about making sure they get enough to eat," Yua adds, smiling to him. "Just, maybe... don't present it with too many expectations, okay?"
Still... 'the place Myunghon's housing him at'. Yua is really quite concerned, hearing the young man is homeless.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
As Yua takes the pen and writes down the name for him, Shinjiro appreciates the help, but is a little anxious about being found out just the extent of what he knows. It was on a blank page, luckily, so his SECRETS ARE SAFE, but for a moment he tenses until he gets the pen and notebook back. He looks at it for a moment. "Nice handwriting," he decides on... he's never been a person to truly judge other's interests and mannerisms, otherwise he wouldn't be friends with Myunghon.
"I'm decent," he says about online. "Smartphones are the future." He actually laughs briefly at this, though he nods. "That makes it less daunting. Thanks." He really thought he'd have to learn French to read this apparently TRUE CRIME OF THE OLD PEOPLE...
Yua gives him advice about Myunghon's condition, though. "Blander, vegetables, supplements... got it. Yeah. I won't push them, but I don't want them to starve, either."
Though, Yua's concerned at something... and instead of leaving it like before or tching, Shinjiro finally speaks up. His homelessness has never really been a *secret*, though it's not the most comfortable to discuss.
"It's fine, I'm fine. I just fell through the cracks. Someone like Myunghon... they're the only one who's truly understood me so far." ...in ways he can't even talk about, even.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Thanks!" Yua chirps, when Shinjiro notices how cute her handwriting is.
(It's okay, Shinjiro. She wouldn't go flipping through someone else's notebook. ... not unless she had to, anyway.)
"I'm really surprised at how smart they are now..." Yua sighs, glancing to her handbag, thinking of her nice new phone.
"You're a gentle boy," Yua smiles, to him, again.
She didn't say anything about Shinjiro's living environment, of course; she might be the world's thickest woman (figuratively speaking; literally, she's fifty kilos soaking wet), but even she can tell that pressing on a detail like that might make Shinjiro bolt for the door. Shinjiro catches her expression, though -- she's really terrible at hiding those things -- and explains, anyway.
"You know," she says, and tries to be delicate about this, too, "we are aware of you, at school, Aragaki-kun." And it's a good thing she is; she might have assumed they had common ground, if she hadn't seen the kanji of his surname. "It wouldn't be very nice to force you to do anything... but just because you're refusing school instead of just at risk for it, that hardly means I've stopped caring. I don't know... if you were worried everyone had forgotten you, or..."
A real teacher would know how to have this conversation, Yua thinks to herself, bitterly, as she tries to keep her smile supportive; it grows a touch more fragile, despite herself.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"...You don't know me," Shinjiro says about being a gentle boy, for a moment. He takes in Yua's explanations of them knowing him at school, and his grimace becomes sharper. It's not anger that hits his face, though, but *guilt*, having to confront it from someone who doesn't even have a reason to care, being off duty, but is saying they do.
He remembers that promise he made to Mitsuru all those years ago, and how horrible he is for breaking it. He remembers how he has no future, that everyday he's hurtling faster towards the sun, and for a moment, everything feels just so small. Shinjiro normally doesn't freak out like this around other people, chronically overthinking every single struggle he has, but he's been very stressed out lately, and hasn't gotten true rest during all of it. His walls are down.
Shinjiro just sits there, looking at his feet, for a long moment. He takes two sharp breathes, and then exhales.
"I'd rather you all did." Forget him, that is. "Be easier for everyone. Someone like me doesn't belong at some fancy-ass rich people school." Even when he's like this, though, it doesn't seem like he wants to take it out on Yua. But he's hoping she gives up on him.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"I see you," Yua responds, soft and compassionate.
... so often, when she says that, it's a threat.
Still... as she listens to him say he'd rather they forget...
Yua reaches out, to squeeze his shoulder, in a moment of human connection she scarcely thinks about at all. "Haa... you know what?" She asks, her smile all too complicated. "A 'country' girl like me didn't belong in Seven Sisters, either. Back then, my teachers weren't, mm, always understanding... I know there's a strong push to fit in or leave, really, I do."
Her hands fold in her lap, as she looks down to them, for a moment. "But I'm sure it isn't easier for everyone, Aragaki-kun. It's never easier to just... forget someone." Her half-gaze grows shadowed, a frown flitting over her beautifully made up face. "Even if they disappeared, they'd still be felt. An announcement after a big victory... another disappearance... the way their family retreats and combusts inside themselves. And then... one day, you'd not be forgotten, remembered again, made real, and you'd find everything was different..."
(There's internet on the phones, now.)
But Yua realises -- a touch too late -- her own distress, as her knee starts bouncing, heel tapping against the ground. "Er -- never mind that," she smiles, too pleasantly, looking to him again. "Just.... don't be so hard on yourself, all right?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro doesn't respond to being seen, but he listens for a long moment, not speaking. Not always understanding, huh? The squeeze gets a small reaction, but he doesn't push her off... he knows she's trying.
But then, Yua talks about stuff he doesn't know the context of. He frowns sharply, until she seems to be anxious about it. When she says nevermind, he nods, putting it out of mental reach.
In the end, he moves to slowly stand up, if Yua will let him. "I appreciate the kindness. But not everyone can have the kind of future a school like Gekkoukan promises."
He's already given up. It hurts so much to be given these chances, ones he can never take. How much he wishes he could say 'okay, help me out'. How much he wishes he could just go back to school and fulfill his promise. But he already made his bed.
Now he has to lie in it.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"You're still young," Yua says, hands clasping each other tightly in her lap. "Don't close all the doors you're facing so quickly... you know, if you really don't feel you belong in Gekkoukan, you don't need to disengage entirely. You -- you could go to Kasugayama, if you really feel you don't fit in..."
She realises the implications he might read into that a moment later, though, and looks down at her bouncing leg. "I'm not saying that because I've given up on you," she insists, quietly. "But someone must meet you where you are, Aragaki-kun. Really, I fear for you..."
Her leg-bouncing intensifies. She is making a mess of this outreach.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"It's not that simple," Shinjiro stops and says with a turn of the head. He wants to leave. He should leave. Say something sad and walk away. Just forget about her.
But that intense leg-bouncing stops him. If he leaves now, what will she do? Say? How will she feel? Is he going to hurt someone else, who only wanted to help? Will she tell someone what happened, or keep pursuing him, keep hurting them both?
He turns around fully, not retaking his seat, but he sighs as he turns to her. "I lost my chance a long time ago for any of this. Most people have a lot of roads they can take, right? And they have to choose which road they're going to take, which one leads to their next set of roads. And this goes on and on and on."
A breath. "I chose the wrong one. And now I'm out of branches. So I'm following this one until I see where it leads." Shinjiro knows where it leads. But he can't say that. He'll let her assume whatever she wants. Hopefully it serves to push her away, he thinks. Give up on him, like he's given up on him.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Oh," Yua says, and ships have shattered on something less sharp and jagged than that word, as she clutches at her heart.
She looks, all a sudden, as if she might cry.
"I'm sorry, dear," she says, and she thinks she's heard him clearly. "I -- I am object, not subject, I -- see little but the sights prescribed to me. I didn't know..."
Yua looks down, hands folding together in her lap. "It's all right," she tries to soothe him, though her voice trembles. "The Powers that Be aren't so easily denied. You'd be in terrible danger if you tried to go against them, wouldn't you...? Oh, you poor boy... you must feel so trapped. And here I am, offering solutions as if you've the power to take any one of them..."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Yua gets really sad, like she might cry. Did she...?
She says a lot of words in a way Shinjiro doesn't quite understand, but his already-strained overthinker's brain tries anyways, because she seems too smart to be saying random shit. Object, not subject, makes little sense, but his brain hits on the 'powers that be' and 'terrible danger' and 'you must feel so trapped'. Oh. She knows. The powers that be is her metaphor for what he's done... terrible danger is a metaphor for the pain... isn't it? After all, she said they are aware of him. Does Kirijo know, too? Has she known this whole time? Does this teacher know Kirijo? No, probably not, but...
After all, what else could it be? This teacher is part of some conspiracy, when she was so kind to him? Impossible. It hasn't even *crossed his mind*, despite being a friend of Myunghon, because... he doesn't like to think that about people. Besides, she's a civilian...
After a long pause to think, he finally exhales, speaking. "...I have probably less than a year left in me. Every solution is useless, a dead end... it just makes it worse. Impossibly worse. Hurt more every time it's offered. So give up on me, alright?"
He's spiraling a bit. He didn't want to talk about this.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Shinjiro says he has less than a year, and now tears do spring to Yua's eyes, her breath hitching.
"I'm sorry," she says, again, and quietly. "I'm sorry it happened to you. I'm sorry. You're still a child... you shouldn't know these things. Of course, that's why you lost control, I should have seen it... oh!..."
She takes a breath, digging into her handbag to fetch a tissue, dabbing at her eye. (Just the one. No tears leak from beneath her eyepatch.)
"They didn't give me a time," she admits, softly, voice scarcely above a whisper. "But with the new drugs, I suppose... oh, I'm not a fool, I know they take the cost from my flesh. Each time, I come apart..."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Yua says something Shinjiro wasn't expecting, and Shinjiro realizes part of what's going on. Yua's... on the same drugs as him. That's what he takes from it... this means she must be a Persona user, more likely than not, though he doesn't have total confirmation. Why didn't she fight...? Even so...
It makes more sense, why she's trying to reach out. If you're dying... you help those you can.
"They told me they'd prevent that..." Shinjiro says, regarding losing control. "But when people don't have a reason to tell you the truth, you get lied to." Another shaky breath. He's not a crier, but if he was, it'd well up.
"A cost from flesh... a good way to put it. ...I did this to myself. So I guess it's a cost I have to pay." Does he blame himself? Without hesitation.
He turns again, but he doesn't want to just leave Yua while she's crying. "...I can't come back to school. For obvious reasons. But you can find me in the alleys behind Port Island Station, when I'm not busy. ...if you need anything, let me know." He takes his pen, and in his actually pretty smooth and sleek writing, writes his phone number down on his notebook, ripping the piece of paper out to hand to Yua..
"If you want it. Whether it's to help Myunghon or... each other."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Ah, the original suppressants," Yua says, and specifies, for some strange reason. (She isn't particularly worried about being overheard; she's speaking quietly, and people in a mall all have their own problems to attend to.) "Sometimes... if it's been a while between doses... the effects can wane, just enough for small arguments, I've found. Nothing -- nothing terribly serious, at least until the effects run out, but..."
Small... 'arguments'?
Yua shakes her head. "They will blame you," she says. "You mustn't let them. The cost I bear, ah... it's the cost of their understanding. They wished to develop tools to enhance their own powers, and... if they offer you power, you mustn't let them. No matter their tricks, you musn't let them! A boy like you... you'll end up just like me."
The way she says it -- there's something worse that could happen to Shinjiro.
And she's speaking quite honestly.
She takes his number, and at least tries to smile, to him. "You're such a kind boy," she says, warmly, though of course she'd sooner care for him than make him solve her problems. (She thinks she is easing his, letting him know he's not alone.) "I'll text you my number with this. Please, call on me any time. I know not your purpose, but... I will aid you if I can."
Her smile grows tense.
"Myucchi isn't one of us," she warns him. "But that doesn't mean they're our enemy, when the mission's done. They'll help you, I promise. They helped save me," she repeats, again... and perhaps it rings different, now.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
The original suppressants... there's new ones? Strega never offered him those... but he's not one of them, either. Are there other dealers, maybe? But he nods once to Yua about the small arguments, confirming the original suppressants are the ones he takes. He doesn't know exactly what that means, but his guess is, if the drugs are suppressing the Persona... bad things happen if you're not taking them anymore.
About blaming him, though... maybe people will blame him. Or maybe it's supposed to be the voices at the edge of your head; Yua seems to like metaphor. After all, he took the drugs himself. He blames himself. But she's trying to encourage him not to end up like her... how bad are her side effects? "...I'll try."
The kind boy comment isn't rejected this time verbally, as he takes a breath. He doesn't feel so kind. He can't tell her about his deeds... the effects are enough, the cause is irrelevant. Maybe someday. "I will. Thank you."
Myunghon isn't one of them... he didn't think they were, but perhaps Yua once thought they were? The mission must be more metaphor. He's rationalizing, and may pick at it later, but for now, he's taking Yua at face value, someone who finally found a connection to a boy who thought no one could. "I know they will. ...they gave me a chance I thought I'd never have."
He'll wave once more, before turning. "I need to go eat something. ...take care."
He'll leave soon after. He's gonna go to the safehouse, eat something, and take a break.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Shinjiro assures her he'll try, and Yua smiles with relief. "Thank goodness," she says, and she is thinking of their empty promises, as they engineered her consent, made her motivated to walk into that audience with her own two feet.
they said she could see miho.
they lied.
And surely -- surely -- Shinjiro is as she thinks he is. A boy from the labs, churned into the NWO machine, forced to live on the outskirts of society to achieve some goal or another. A victim. Surely, if he blames himself, it is not for any evil he chose; she knows all too well the guilt.
"Take care, dear," Yua calls, as he leaves, and sits on that bench for quite a few minutes longer, dabbing at her eyes as she sniffles.
She sends him that text, as she promised; she introduces herself as Yua Ooshiro.
As the friend he met, earlier.
If only -- if only! -- he were not someone who knew.
But she is helpless to save him, where they both, in her eye, are bound; she cannot even save herself. No... she will just have to hope that Myunghon can save him, too.