2025-11-23: Baka Mitai
- Log: Baka Mitai
- Cast: Yukari Takeba, Minato Arisato
- Where:
- OOC Date: November 24, 2025
- IC Date: August 15, 2012
- Summary: In the wake of seeing a video of the final moments of her father, Yukari Takeba ran away from the meeting after accusing Mitsuru of pitying her. Mitsuru sends Minato after her... and then the Dark Hour happens. This is fine... until!
- Context: This scene takes place directly following: https://www.velvetroom.wiki/index.php/2025-11-21:_Who_is_Responsible during the SEES Yakushima arc, as a prelude to the scene on 12/03.
- TN: Keikaku means- no. Yukari says 'Baka Mitai' as her Japanese version of 'That's Ridiculous' in the Persona 2 movie, leading to the name of this scene.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
It doesn't take too long to find Yukari. She could have run further inland if she wanted to, but she didn't. As a child in Kyoto she was always drawn to bodies of water. In that case, the river...
... all those lanterns journeying down upon the currents, shifting and bobbing, until the lights faded. She liked to imagine that if she could see far enough down it, that her Father would be there, smiling at her.
A child's fantasy.
Now she stands before an ocean, and the other side seems further away than ever. If you look, there's the shadow of another Okinawa island, but one cannot see it's shores, not really.
The gentle waves lap the beach, as a crescent sliver of the Moon shines overhead as a crescent upon a dark circle, shining down in it's waning phase.
And she stands there, one hand upon her opposite arm, in this gesture of vulnerability and self-consciousness.
One might believe she came here to cry, but she isn't. She's cried for years over the idea that she'd never see him again. The thought that nobody believed in him but her.
Now the truth has made her numb, numb enough that she has to rub her opposite arm to feel anything at all, looking at the ocean.
"This is too much..."
I believed in you for so long.
How could I have been so wrong?
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. TOCK.
A function primarily of the gravitational pull of the moon on the earth flows out into the sand, embracing it like a mother. Just as blood soaks a birthing-bed, so too does blood soak the sand, hanging in anticipation for long moments before it flows back out into the sea of red whence it was borne.
And for just a moment, the sand is stained dark, yellow with a touch of green, sickly and sodden.
Again the embrace.
A boy's footsteps interrupt the midwife; pat, pat, pat. His sneakers still crunch lightly against the sand, as if it were joyous day. But his hands are slipped into his pockets, now; he is not here to celebrate.
"It's the Dark Hour, now," Minato Arisato advises her, as if she had no eyes to see or heart to squeeze. "You shouldn't be wandering outside alone."
He comes to a stop, a arm's length or two away.
And he does not watch the red ocean -- but Yukari.
Yukari, whose father caused those events, ten years ago...
... but Minato cannot share in the anger he glimpsed from Reiya, when he stood, when he left.
No: he shares little emotion at all.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
The transition prickles the skin and tears at the senses. The lighting in the sky changes. Yukari looks up, then across the blood-red sea.
For some reason, it feels apropos to the moment, that the doing of her Father be rubbed in her face.
"Dad... why...?"
She heard the reasons, but it still doesn't make sense to her. The destruction of the whole world feels so big. More than she can imagine. And she can imagine a lot, thanks to the Dark Hour and this new life she leads.
She hears the footsteps on the sand, and her eyes close. It was perhaps entirely unexpected...
... even who it is. "Are you here just to tell me that...? Or is it because Kirijo-senpai sent you?" She replies, terse and upset- lashing out to even the idea of it.
But then she relents. He's not who she's mad at. But that person is standing on this beach.
She takes a breath, looks over her shoulder at him, then keeps looking out to sea. One hand shifting to the opposite, bare shoulder.
And well if anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt here.
"Remember what I told you in the hospital, Arisato-kun? How my Dad died when I was little? You understand now, right? Nobody knew the truth, so there were all sorts of rumors. Because he was in charge of the research team... people were really cruel to me and my Mom. ... We even had to move a few times."
It's only now that she turns towards him, looking at him with dry brown eyes. "I guess it was just wishful thinking that I thought you were like me." She says, quietly, "After all, you haven't been clinging to a fantasy for so long. It was pretty obvious now that I think about it- how dumb I was being"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"She asked me to come," Minato confirms, mildly.
"But I wanted to."
Four words. He didn't need to say them; must be aware that he opening himself to her anger. But this is anger he will weather, and it is more important to him, than silence, this confirmation of the work Yukari has done.
And yet --
It's not that he was worried.
He had a wish he carried through.
Minato is not angry at the daughter of sin. No: she could not be the harbinger. Intuitively -- from the bones of him -- Minato knows this. His mind could not describe it if he were asked, but pressure striped black and white is the prison of his certainty.
Perhaps that is why he looks at her with neither pity nor revulsion, neither anger nor regret.
And his eyes are dry, too.
"No," he shakes his head, at length. "It isn't." Obvious.
"You wanted that. You taught me that wanting things for yourself was an important part of living in this world... so I don't accept that wishing we were alike was dumb."
He has made himself a little more like her, too. When you look at someone intently, they're reflected in your eyes. This is true of everyone: Fools and their Personas only quantify it.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
'But I wanted to.'
Something flickers within both eyes. "... Why?" She asks, surprised - more surprised than she ought to be. Because she at least thinks he isn't here out of pity.
"... I'm pretty miserable company right now." She says, as her eyes drift down to a bloody wave, crested with foam in the gentle back and forth of the sea.
"Aha." There's a dark chuckle at him saying it's not, like it's too absurd that he'd say that - or perhaps just like him. Or both at the same time.
But, it's not wrong, he says. That she taught him that. "... I wanted it too much." She rebuts mildly, "I guess I thought... if it were true, then- I wouldn't feel like I'd wasted so many years of my life trying to prove everybody wrong."
...
"That I wasn't... alone- if at least one other person was - as different as I am... I loved him a lot you know. I thought he'd never do anything wrong." She smiles in a self-deprecating way. "I almost gave up- then this last Spring, I got a letter from him- written ten years ago. It cracked me up 'cause, even though he said 'To my family,' it was more or less all about me. And that made me believe in him more. So when I found out I had a special power- I thought it was fate. I was scared, but - I thought if I cooperated with the Kirijo Group, maybe I'd finally figure out what happened. That's why I agreed to fight with my Persona."
She looks right at him, "Now I can see it was all for nothing. The truth... it was right there in front of me all along."
The blood red of the waves, the baleful moonlight, the green sky.
They scream it at her now-
Eiichiro Takeba is responsible.
Her voice cracks notably, as she says it aloud, for the first time in her life. "D-Dad is to blame... I just didn't want to believe it."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"When you left, I saw how everyone reacted," Minato replies, mildly. "It made me think about the time I left a meeting, too. I wondered if everyone acted the same way, back then. Then, I wondered what would have happened if someone followed me... and I wanted to find out."
It's so -- it's so...!!!
Rather than acknowledging how infuriating it might be that Minato didn't just say straight-up he was worried, though, he just turns to look at the ocean.
"They say misery loves company," Minato muses, to the blood-red seas. The foam on the top -- like all the other fluids...
Yukari says there's such a thing as wanting something too much. Minato looks back to her, as she speaks, his expression mild as ever.
"You feel it's wasted...?" He wonders, tilting his head.
"I don't think belief can be pointless like that... effort, either. Because it was important to you. Because it shaped you. Because it's still shaping you. You almost gave up... but you didn't. I don't think you would have."
Minato takes a step forward, and slips his hands from his pockets, with a loose, open-palmed gesture. "... even if you tell me it's for nothing, I don't believe that. There might be no meaning behind it now for you, but it meant something to me. When I'm with you and the others, I don't get bored... so, I don't think it's all bad."
His face is far more calm than the sea, as he asks: "Sometimes, it's even fun, don't you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Even his reason is so-! So-!
Yukari answers to it though, "... You did more than just leave a meeting. There was the hospital room too... really all sorts of situations."
It's not really trying to apologize for not following him, she doesn't feel bad about it. Even now. It's more explaining why she didn't.
"But you were just trying not to care... to protect yourself."
And she knows that now too.
"Maybe it does." She says, softly, because she is tired - the loneliness has been getting to her. That distance. And now she feels further away from everyone than ever.
But Minato asks her a question, "What would you call it, then?" She replies, before listening to him, as she glances at the side of his face.
She concedes internally at least, that he's probably right. Even at her worst, even at the nadir back then- she remained steadfast.
It's just difficult to be steadfast... when you feel so alone. Like nobody understands you. Like nobody would ever agree with you.
He takes a step forward, and she's still locked onto him- "...Huh?" She makes a noise, as he says 'It meant something to him.'
At first she sounds incredulous at his answer of 'Sometimes, it's even fun' "What?" Then subtly unimpressed, "Oh, come on." Before then looking away, at the sea, "That's ridiculous."
And it is ridiculous. Who likes to risk their life? Who wants to be scared like she was? Who wants to suffer? Who wants to put something that looks like a gun to her head and pull the trigger?
But that's not what her tone was, her tone was more like she was buying what he said, a little. Because... it's strange, to think he has a point.
She does enjoy her time here, with the others. Not just - people - but the people here.
"With the others... huh?" She says, more introspective, like she's actually giving the thought the time of day.
And for a while, she just stares at the ocean, alongside him in silence - thinking about that idea, but it's hard to.
It's hard to focus upon it. The thought of being here for the sake of the people she's spent so long pushing away.
The anger- the resentment- the disappointment. The spiteful need to prove everyone wrong about something she feels so strongly about. It's all still there. And she hasn't really come to terms with it.
"...You're just trying to make me feel better." Like whatever positive progress from that thought being in her head was implanted, she shoves it aside.
"But I shouldn't- feel better. All the while in there, I just thought 'why does he get to live' when my Dad didn't. 'Why does she get to have a Father?'"
She looks away from him, ashamed, and the shame in her tone worsens, "You shouldn't waste your time on such a horrible person as me... really. You can't really think it's fun to be around me... as jealous as I am- all I can do is drag everyone down."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"That's true," Minato admits, of all Yukari's insight.
And he is excellent company for misery, as it happens. ... is the distance protecting her? He wonders, about that.
When a person dies, the last rites are conducted, the body prepared. It is a temple without a God, then: the empty halls echo with what ought have been, and the face which looks up to their loved ones is an uncanny facsimile of who once lived there.
There are people who call the process pointless; futile. Coins thrown before cats.
And yet, it is that very care and consideration which communicates the the connections of their life.
Belief is not for the dead.
Belief is for the living.
Minato offers Yukari the ghost of a smile, as she dismisses his beliefs are ridiculous. As if to say: it's funny, isn't it?
It's funny that anyone would feel alive as they practice death, become close to it, comfortable with it. It becomes much more likely -- every time they put the gun to their temples. Much more possible. It only takes so much pressure... to push the trigger down... ready, click.
But there is power -- and defiance -- in being able to pull the trigger, yet still turning to the people they rely on.
... power can be frightening, too.
Minato watches Yukari, quietly, as she pushes his sentiments aside. He waits, patiently, for her to work through the thought. Resentment, anger... shame. All of it he observes with that same mild expression, unshaken as she lashes out at the very concept of others.
Why does Mitsuru get to have a Father?
Minato wonders, for a moment, what kind of Father Mitsuru ever got to get. A girl pushed into responsibilities too early, who wore the guilt of Takeharu's secrets like her own funerary shroud -- even as he insisted the guilt laid not with her.
Minato thinks, then, that it is convenient Takeharu could tell her the fault was with the adults preceding her... when she already took so much upon herself.
Minato isn't very good at people; he knows that. Yukari, to all his measures, is far more sensitive to the rules and customs between them. And so, Minato thinks: what's blocking Yukari's path, that she doesn't think these things? What has weighed her down so much that she sees only her jealousy over
Mitsuru's father, blind to the contents therein?
And then -- as her shame deepens -- Minato realises:
No.
Some part of Yukari must know.
She knows -- and blames herself -- just as Mitsuru does.
"That's not all you do," Minato shakes his head, with another half-step towards her.
"You feel how you feel. That's okay. Feelings are just feelings... it doesn't make you horrible. It just means you're alive."
How can he say all that with that same mild expression -- as if he's never had a feeling in his life?
"I wanted to be here," Minato says, again.
(You don't need to express an emotion to feel it.)
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
It's true. That's how it usually happens. Except in her father's case, at the epicenter of it all, there wasn't enough of a body left to be identified.
His grave is empty, a memorial of belief for the living. Sometimes she visits it, but she's more likely to just talk to her Dad in her room-
Or while looking across the sea-
Or when she's feeling down-
Or to report to him some accomplishment-
Belief is for the living. She's alive, and that's why she could believe in him. That he'd never do anything wrong.
Unlike her. So much about her is wrong. Her feelings. The way she lives her life. The way she pushes others away.
"Oh, then what do I do then?" She asks at his statement, like she's not sure what answer she'll get, but she doubts it'll be the correct one.
'It doesn't make you horrible. It just means you're alive.'
'I wanted to be here.'
She squeezes her eyes shut in frustration, "How can you just... say that? How can you be so calm?"
'It doesn't make you horrible'
The words echo in her head-
'It makes you alive.'
Then she turns towards him, and her arm slashes down, "Stop acting like you know me!"
She knows... what kind of girl she is. Any other girl would find her position enviable- but she's the jealous one. The one who is unpleasant and cruel.
There's nothing about her that's enviable.
"You don't know anything about me-!" And it's in yelling at the one person that's there for her, that the shame sets in again.
She's... not even mad at him, she's mad at herself. Crossing her arms as if trying to protect herself in a vulnerable position, she turns away from him.
And the sadness creeps in. She can't even let someone comfort her on one of the worst days of her life... how can anyone's position get lonelier than this?
It's only now that she sniffs, and squeezes her eyes shut, as he might swear she looks like she's going to cry. Ironically - now... not even at the news of her father.
Now.
"Sorry... I'm... sorry. I'm so confused- I feel lost... scared. What am I even supposed to do with my life now?"
The answer can't really just be- doing this with others right? Having fun? The supernatural isn't fun for her- life isn't about having fun with other people, right?
That's not what growing up is?
But the weight of ten years, the idea she wasted her life... it's so heavy right now.
As her arms rub against each other, her voice breaks again, "I d-don't suppose you know?" She sniffles again, as the tears start to fall from her eyes, "Because I... don't." Then much softer, "I juh-just don't know."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
How can he be so calm...?
Minato weathers Yukari's anger as if he were the eye of the storm; and he offers her no answer. It is not a thing he can approach -- understand -- comprehend; as if he were the corpse, prepared for viewing.
But he is alive, and he is viewing Yukari, now, with that same even expression, neither taken aback nor offended.
It isn't just that he can't connect his feelings to the emotions pouring out from her, though.
It's... the fact that he can see who she's angry at.
Knowing that, it costs him little to let her work her way through them.
Through... her tears.
Yukari is crying...
"It's okay not to know," Minato says, with the same tone he's worn the whole way through. He can hear it; he hears how calm he sounds. And it's true that his heart isn't stormy. Still, there's something...
It's hard for him to express.
Even if he had an answer for Yukari -- it's not one he could give. It wouldn't be her Answer. And he knows, more than anything, that it's important to Yukari her decision be hers.
So he just assures her she doesn't need to know right away.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
It becomes a rough sob out of her. Yukari places a hand against her face, like she's embarrassed. She's a girl - but she always wanted to be a strong one - and stronger still when she's a woman rather than a young one.
Strong girls don't cry in front of other people, she convinced herself of this truth, but... now she is.
Guess that means she's weak... at least, by her own evaluation of it. But...
... he tells her that it's okay not to know. "H-How is that okay!?" She blurts out, as if shocked by it. They're nearly adults! They need to know what they're doing with their lives.
And she just doesn't. "Aha- haha... wow..." She says, chuckling, as she opens her eyes, wiping them with the side of her hand. "... you're really something else. Sorry for acting like this." She looks at him, and tries her best to smile, "I know you've lost your parents too. I'm... okay." She claims, when she's not, "I'm used to dealing with this. So it's really selfish of me to make you deal with it... but thanks for listening."
She takes a step towards him, with that rueful smile, "... We can go back now... if you want. But..."
She won't say it was fun, because it wasn't. However...
"... it wasn't all bad, I guess."
In an echo of his words from earlier. And in the unspoken part, her brown eyes, so recently teared up smile as they convey a single idea.
Because you were here with me
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Strong girls don't cry...? Maybe there's not so much difference between girls and boys after all... since Minato's heard that, too. He doesn't look disappointed, though.
It's not that he doesn't think Yukari can stand on her own two feet. He doesn't think she needs to apologise, either... but rather than telling her she doesn't, he observes that it was important to her to do so.
The tension does seem to be broken a little by Yukari's surprise, at least, but... what she's laughing through...
"I was happy to," Minato says, when Yukari says it's selfish and thanks him anyway. It's honest, too: Yukari hasn't caused him any problems by having all these messy feelings.
But he looks at the way she steps towards him, now, the way her eyes are still damp from all those tears... and Minato steps forward, too. He pats a hand to her shoulder, first -- one of those subtle little nonverbal indicators of what he's meaning to do -- and then, he pulls her into a hug.
There are some things he doesn't have the words to express, but...
It's Yukari he came out here to find.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
The tension deflating, that step towards him, her posture is certainly less defensive.
She's smiling newly off of laughing, despite the fact that there's a subtle marring of her makeup around the edges of her eyes. A minute amount of redness.
And yet she still doesn't expect it when he steps forward to hug her. In fact, at first when he does, her arms are off to her sides of her, at first just surprised that he- that someone, anyone is hugging her. Much less him... blushing ferociously.
But then her eyes close, as she laces her arms one just below mid-back, and the other at the small of his back, leaning her head against his shoulder.
It feels natural to her, as natural as breathing. And yet she'd forgotten what it was like...
... to...
... touch...
...someone...
Much less to want to be touched. Like a long forgotten, warm memory.
It's not just 'not so bad'... it's actually 'nice' ... no more than that... it's wonderful actually... to be comforted, when you're feeling so scared and lost and alone.
It makes her actually feel that much better, and that much less alone. It might have been a waiting game for one or the other to break it, but Yukari hears a guttural noise from...
... Minato's stomach? Wait... no?
It's... behind him.
Opening her eyes, she gasps audibly, in a way that would alert Minato to the danger as she pulls away.
"Shadows!?"
Merciless Mayas, a whole hoard of red masked ichorous blobs bobbing as they move towards them in a pack, their arms extended from their masses towards their prey.
All behind him - no not just behind him. Look this way, and that... more are coming, and they're closing ranks. As the heat of an Agi spell soars over Minato's shoulder, only barely missing both of them.