2025-10-01: To Shine
- Log: To Shine
- Cast: Yua Ooshiro, Miho Ijuuin
- Where: Penthouse - Aoba Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: October 1, 2025
- IC Date: Thursday, July 19, 2012 (after midnight, ish)
- Summary: After a battle with Shiryuu Ryouhara, Yua and Miho return to their penthouse to check wounds and discuss their feelings on the matter.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Gretchen takes Yua and Miho far away from Ichibadori Bridge, before the Dark Hour fades. The lights flicker on as Yua sits Miho on the couch, bringing over their well-used first aid kit.
Because while Faust and Gretchen could ease the pains of Miho's injuries... enough still lingers.
"Mooouuuu," Yua pouts, as she diligently cleans those wounds with the sterilising solution which, by some unknown method, promises to chase infection away; she doesn't understand how it works, and it took Miho a terribly long time to even get Yua comfortable with a first-aid kit again following her rescue, but Yua used to go camping. That's really all one needs to know vis-a-vis her ability to use one.
She's... as gentle as she can be, knowing it really stings.
"He could have picked a better time... really, any better time!" Yua huffs, offended on Miho's behalf. "Really, it's less than a week until the Olympics...! Oh, is this okay?" She stops to ask, pausing in her disinfecting to look to Miho with concern.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Who knows what strange pathogens were on that paper bow and its arrow? They don't know where Shiryuu's been.
...Well, that's probably not a concern, but disinfectant is a sensible precaution in any case. Miho's exposed torso offers no resistance to bandaging and cleaning, and Miho herself doesn't so much as flinch even as the burn of the medicine kicks in.
Yes, it stings. Miho can handle stinging. ...Also, she took her evening medicine recently, and that always helps her with detachment.
Sometimes too much.
"He could have," Miho agrees, "But where there are no stakes, there is no glory. ...I have triumphed."
A pause. "...And none of these injuries will interfere overmuch with my competitions. It is fine."
They could, certainly, if Miho weren't so inured to pain. She did not get through the battle unmarked, especially on her off-arm...
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Mm..." Yua pouts, and manages to finish her work, before she lays a pad over the gashes and sets to bandaging Miho's off-arm up. "I know you're tough, but... I worry about you!"
Wrap, wrap, wrap...
"If he causes you any problems at all, I'll never forgive him," Yua huffs. "Never ever ever ever ever." That's FOUR evers, folks. She's real mad.
And once she's finished mummifying Miho's arm, she leans over and kisses the edge of the bandage, which is really all she can do to fix it at this point. "Mwah! ... let's call Sachie-san and have her do it properly tomorrow, okay?" Yua asks, clasping Miho's hand.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"It is because you care," Miho says, and smiles, leaning down to kiss Yua briefly.
She otherwise doesn't interrupt, though. Instead Yua is very mad, and Miho nods. "I have not forgiven him for the trouble he has given you," she points out. "But I do understand him somewhat better than I did before. ...It is possible that he is not exclusively our enemy."
Awwww.
"Thank you," Miho says, and then, "Yes, of course. I would prefer to heal without scar. They say that scars are a record of one's battles..."
She glances down to her Mark, "But I think I have enough of those for now."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Do Yua kisses fix owies? Listen, she has to work out how this works before she has a child or they're all doomed.
"He's not showing it very well!!" Yua huffs, as she puts the material back in the medicine kit, and puts the medicine kit safely on the kitchen table, and then puts herself safely beside Miho. "If he's not our enemy, he should be nicer!"
Yua reaches over, to slide her hand over Miho's Mark, slipping her hand into hers. "You're perfect as you are, Mimi," she assures her, smiling up to her. "And you really were amazing back there... you know? You're titanically strong! Even when he pulled out that horrid bow thing, you didn't bow for a moment!"
Now Yua has fussed over Miho's injuries, she's free to spend all her time praising her, apparently. What if she got distracted singing her praises when she was really hurt???
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
It's important!
"True," Miho says. "But in our company," she says, including the Powers, "It is difficult to be straightforward. ...Even outside that company I suppose it's not his nature. ...That is the impression I get, at least."
Pause. "Not that we should take him lightly. If we are in his way he will strike again. And I will do the same, if the situation is reversed."
But Miho leans on Yua. She curls her fingers about Yua's. "Thank you," Miho says, to the comments--and then her strength, she smiles. "One must expect the unexpected in battle. ...Though I admit, that was quite unexpected, even in a battle of Personas."
"If I hadn't seen him with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe half of what he did."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Moouuuu..." Yua pouts, again. "He hurt me!"
She pauses.
"Except," she sighs, shoulders sinking in defeat, "Abiru-san would say as much of me..." Tomoya Abiru, of course, was the man Yua punished -- or, to be exact, had no choice but to punish. He escaped with his life; perhaps, one day, his own lover would accost her for satisfaction.
"... but he scares me," Yua admits, with a touch of sadness.
She's comforted sitting with her fiancee, though, and she strokes Miho's arm as she holds her hand. "He has so many rotten little tricks!" Yua huffs, quite offended. "I'd thought he would apply them here... but oh, Mimi, I was so surprised!"
She tilts her head up, to blink at Miho with her one good eye. (The other is, by now, safely hidden by that eyepatch.) "His dirty tricks... they were just like mine, Mimi! The only way I could stop him was by trying to warp the space in my own fashion! Meeting the force with a counter-force worked, but... but how terrible is that?!"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"He did. For that, I will not forgive him."
But Yua understands; it is possible that there are other circumstances relevant to the matter. Miho, too, suspects there is more to the story, has enough theory of mind to know that others have lives as complex and intersecting as her own.
"I will protect you," Miho says. "Count on that."
But his rotten tricks. Surprised, though?
Miho looks down. "...Yes," she says. "I noticed that there was... something, at the edges of perception. But I trusted that you would handle it."
Pause. "...Hmm. Do you think you can learn something from that? Any edge we can take away to use against them is worthwhile."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua smiles, resting her head on Miho's unharmed shoulder. "I know," she says, sweetly reassured by Miho's prowess. "You protected me tonight... he'll think twice before bothering me after a defeat like that! Why, he was so devastated, he needed his opponents to shield him...! I hope he was embarrassed," she adds, with a touch of venom.
"Though, I couldn't just leave him there, either..."
Apparently, Yua's pique only extends to spiting Shiryuu, not to his death.
(But then, that's why she needs protecting.)
Yua nods, smiling up to Miho. "Don't worry, Mimi. I wasn't going to let him trap you! No way a dirty trick like that would defeat a warrior like you...!" But Miho pauses, and Yua tilts her head, against Miho's shoulder.
"Hmm... I think I did," she settles on, "since I didn't know that pushing back on his warping magics with my own would do anything more than make a testament to madness. But if I apply it right, I can challenge someone else's efforts with my own... if I'd pushed harder, I think I could have made a maze of the bridge myself," she adds, thoughtfully. "But then he'd say I was interfering, so I don't know for sure."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"He may have been," Miho notes as to embarrassment. "But so long as he remembers that we are together, that should be sufficient for now."
"...You are kind, even to those who have harmed you. It is admirable, if occasionally worrisome."
That is indeed why she needs protecting.
"I appreciate that," Miho says. And, "...I know he and I have different approaches. But I can only be myself."
But learning? "Hmm. Yes. Well, you do not have to pursue it. But if you decide that you wish to, then it could prove advantageous to us later, if we both come to understand our powers in ways that They do not."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"He'd better!" Yua huffs.
But she sighs, rubbing at Miho's uninjured arm; and if she takes her time across her biceps, well, who can blame her? "You're fiercer than I am... and stronger. I think of a boy being eaten by Shadows having lost all his strength... and even if it's that boy, my heart simply can't bear it."
But Miho is here to protect her, so that's fine, isn't it...?
"Yourself is glorious," Yua smiles, to Miho. "No one's braver than Memimiiii..."
She sighs, though, her hand stilling against Miho's arm. "Before..." She starts, and the word is heavy.
Before -- what?
Miho knows.
"I used to practice against people like me," Yua shares that rare insight about a part of her life best forgotten. "By constantly thwarting their efforts, I grew strong... and their efforts grew stronger against me. That's how I always got better, Mimi... if I had someone to push against, I could develop it further. But when I'm all alone, I'm not sure what to do... mm, isn't it like that with fencing, too?"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"You're kind," Miho repeats. "But I suppose I would prefer he not die in such a way, myself."
It's not quite the same, though.
Memimimi...but...
'Before'.
"...It is," Miho says. "But I would never insist that you practice in that way, considering that you were made to do so, before. ...I think that if the two of us can become as strong as we're able--outside the confines and auspices of Their training--then we'll be better suited to change the world in our way. To change our own lives."
"...But as you say. A partner with whom to practice is important. You can handle fundamentals on your own; point your sword where it is meant to go. ...But in the end, to progress, you must have a challenge."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"You're a good woman," Yua assures Miho, though her statement can of course be taken many ways.
But why wouldn't Yua read her in the best light?
"I know," Yua murmurs, squeezing Miho's hand. "You'd never do what was done. But it troubles me... I'm not sure how else to achieve a greater height."
She sighs, and adds: "I suppose it feels as if this power still isn't really 'mine'... if I claimed it, I'd know how best to better it, wouldn't I?"
Yua makes an uncertain noise, at the back of her throat, weight shifting against Miho. "But now... the only time I strive against those like me... it's when I'm fighting them, Mimi. What am I to take from that...?"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho smiles, but it is a small expression. "Thank you." She doesn't argue the point; there are many ways in which she is good, and true, and strong.
...There are others in which many would argue those points. But Yua is not one.
"Hmm..."
"Yes," Miho says. "...if you did, you might. But it is difficult, isn't it? To do, rather than simply to say."
But...
"Then do not practice the killing arts so much as the arts of misdirection," Miho advises. "...What it means? I cannot say. But it is the way it is, and our lives are as they are, until we can change what is to what must be."
"...They also gain strength. We'll see what comes of it, together."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Yua loves her fiancee, no matter what she's done; a hand which holds a blade so fiercely, after all, can hold hers more gently still.
"I just think... how can I own something I am not free to use?" Yua sighs, glancing down, to their hands, to the Mark wrapped about Miho's arm. "If I revealed myself, they'd know me for a traitor... surely the Powers that Be would protest that."
And... they're getting stronger.
"My hands are ill-suited to killing," Yua admits. "My heart can't bear it, Mimi... even when I condemned those officers to death, oh, I wept!" She scarcely needs to tell Miho, of course, given who she was weeping on. "But I can exhaust them... frighten them... lead them astray. Though it's not always kind... it is kinder than killing them, isn't it?"
Yua hums, wriggling closer to Miho, a touch disturbed. "If they're getting stronger... mm... maybe I ought to fight more, Mimi. If... it's how I get stronger, too... but is that just playing into their hands...?"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho loves her fiancee, too. She holds Yua's hand gently, and then, she considers. The Mark, and what they reveal...
"They would," Miho agrees. "But how many things in this world do we 'own', and yet have only limited use? Our car is subject to rules. The streets we walk are subject to regulations. ...We are imposed upon by the world around us, but that does not mean that we do not have what is ours."
But, "They are. And that is a good thing. But..." She remembers. "It is kinder," Miho says, and perhaps she even believes it is true, because she would not lie to Yua. Still...
"Maybe," Miho agrees. "It is one way. But... think of it as this. We build, over time. We gain in power, in strength, in mass..."
"Right now, we must follow in their shadow."
"But one day, we will become the Sun."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"It's still ours..." Yua marvels, a little, to think of it. "Though -- how grievous to say our foe is society! How are we to fell such a massive beast?"
(How are they to replace it?)
And Miho says it is good that she is unused to killing, but Yua's free hand strays down Miho's arm, to cradle the back of her hand, too. "I'm indebited to these hands," she insists, softly. "For without them I would surely be dead."
She affirms it is at least one way forward, and Yua hums, thoughtfully, as she illustrates her point. "... you'll shine magnificently," she smiles, gazing up to her. "With me beside you... oh, Mimi."
Yua's free hand lifts, back to Miho's shoulder, so that she might steady herself to rise up and kiss her fiancee again. "I love you," she murmurs, against her lips. "Let's become even stronger... so we can claim our perfect world."