2025-12-03: Umie Akabane is no Match For Maria Sakurai
- Log: Umie Akabane is no Match For Maria Sakurai
- Cast: Maria Sakurai, Umie Akabane
- Where: Alaya Shrine, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: December 03, 2025
- IC Date: August 20, 2012
- Summary: Maria, after committing an innocent sin, turns to prayer to stave off her eternal punishment. Instead, she gets Umie Akabane, who is unprepared for the powerhouse of confusion that is Maria Sakurai.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"...so, what do I do..."
Hands clasped behind her back, Maria gazes up at the shrine, her expression troubled. Like a lot of Japanese people, she's not precisely religious, but at the same time, when you're in need, why... not ask for help from whatever will listen? Even if she's not sure what an answer would look like, coming from this shrine.
But then, she's also not sure who you turn to when your biggest problem of the moment is 'I might have cursed my ex and myself courtesy of an urban legend'.
Maybe it doesn't really work, in spite of that being the tale on everyone's lips. Maybe nothing will happen. No calling card has arrived yet -- she's heard on the vine that the killer always leaves a card, first, to say he's coming. Maybe it'll all blow over and she'll have learned her lesson!
...What, precisely, that lesson is yet is still an unknown thing to Maria. Scuffing one foot before her, she gazes at the shrine and tries to think... prayer...ful thoughts? You clap your hands together like this, and then you're supposed to pray for what you want to happen.
Her grandmother always told her this was the important part. But, what does she want to happen, other than for even Takeshi to not die?
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
There is no logical reason for Umie to be here, at a shrine. Shrines are not for people like her. They're for everyone else.
Especially this shrine, which led to some hijinks with her phone the last time she came. (Or did they actually happen? She never could get the messages to come back up, later.)
But it's still Tatsuya's 'shrine', so, in a way, this is like exposure therapy. However, while Gotokuji Temple was delightful (save for a stray glimpse of something crawling trying to be noticed out of the corner of her eye, please do not Percieve her, she is not here)
"Generally, you pray. Or make an offering."
... And this is another reason why Umie should not be at a shrine. The comment is light-hearted, at least.
If Maria turns, she may recognize the short blonde woman from the Fireworks festival, albeit now in casual wear. Funnily enough, her wrists were covered with her yukata back then, and the same goes for here. While those cuffs were laced, making it seem like a fancy way to spice up an outfit, these ones are white, and a plain ribbed fabric that stretches from where they hook over her thumb up to a few inches below her elbow. The rest is just denim shorts, a red short-sleeved tee, and sandals. The dark apricot color of her nails doesn't quite match, but she's likely pivot to red next when she gets tired of retouching this color. Her hand holds onto her purse under one arm, decorated with a woven good luck charm.
"Thought I recognized you. From the Fireworks festival in Tokyo, right?" The one with the dreams about death. "I was the one that got drenched in front of the Triple Seven."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
She, unexpectedly, gets an answer. "Ah?! Kami-sama--" she utters, turning sharply to be faced with someone who definitely isn't a kami.
"Oh! You're the," Maria starts, stops, then nods emphatically when Umie gives her some more context. "Yes! I remember you. You didn't catch a cold, right?" ...In the middle of summer? "It's not good to be in wet clothes, you know," she continues, as if lecturing a junior and not a... full-grown adult.
Well, Umie is shorter than she is. And considerably less ripped.
"Maria!" she says, pointing at herself. "That's my name. Maria Sakurai. Um, I don't remember if I said last time, anyway." She swings her weight from one leg to the other. "Are you here to try to pray, too? ...What's your name again?"
It must be nice, to live so simply.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
No, Kami-sama has not answered your prayers, Maria, as you only have Umie here.
"Yes, 'that girl'," Umie supplies, borrowing the phrase from Tsubasa (who was using it for an entirely different reason).
DId Umie catch a cold? She winks, holding up a finger. "No, I'm invincible." Maybe Umie really is a god. "Did you still have a good time, though?"
(Umie is not, by any stretch of the imagination, invincible or a god.)
"Maria Sakurai," Umie sounds out. "My name's Umie Akabane."
Is she here to pray?
...
"Yes," Umie decides. "I am definitely here to pray." At this shrine, that looks like it's seem better days. "Though I rarely see people younger than me here." _Umie you're 20_
Wait, Maria said 'try to pray'. "Having trouble concentrating?" Because someone is being a chatterbox, like Umie is being, right now?
It would be polite to *not* ask what it is, but too late.
"Is it about those dreams you were having?"
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Oh wow..." Maria utters, wide-eyed when Umie reveals she got drenched and didn't get even a little bit sick. Maria, really, it's the middle of summer, it was probably just a little gross for a while.
But did Maria have a good time? "Uh huh. I never did find my friend, though. She said she had a good time, but she never found me, either!"
...Maybe it's better not to comment.
"Umie-san! It's nice to meet you," says Maria, who is apparently that sort of person. Maybe she thinks that Umie is... about her age? "Really? I see kids here sometimes." Maria pauses, thinking about it. "Well. I guess that's during festivals, though? I don't come here often." She's just here to pray, probably because something is on her mind.
"...Kind of," Maria demures, looking away from Umie. Can she tell? Does she know what she did? "My dreams? Um," Maria starts, then hesitates, holding that thought a moment long. "Yeah. About those dreams. You said... was it you that said you have them, too?" It was Tamaki, but.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
It was so gross. Umie didn't even have the energy to at least dress like she was going to an important meeting between two factions; it took forever to just get the yukata off and properly hung up in the bathroom.
This is the story of how Umie wound up ironically wearing the very shirt she had to buy at the hospital gift shop, after the Joker Killer tried to kill her and the Phantom Thieves intervened. And now, she is--
.... Not wearing that shirt, thank god.
"There's always the next festival," she offers Maria. "You both had a good time, sounds like."
Names are exchanged, and Umie nods, adjusting one of her bangs as she offers an amiable enough smile. "Likewise." Umie seems to be taking it stride, as it's beginning to feel a little familiar...
...... god this is how she and her friend Toki met
"Probably. It's got a good view of the town, and there's no one to chase a bunch of rowdy kids away."
Can Umie tell? Perhaps that's why she's here, Maria, because of your sin, that you can never take back.
"That was my friend Uchida-san, but. I can't say I wasn't a bit interested, myself. I'm sure I've had some, here and there."
But, from Maria's tone, it sounds like it's not about that, at all.
Umie shouldn't force the issue. People have death dreams all the time, just like Tamaki, who is someone who's had a very normal, ordinary life.
yeah nevermind she's going to push, neither Tamaki or Maria feel like they have normal lives
"If I pray with you, will that help?"
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Mmhmm," Maria replies, noncommital, to the comment that there'll be a next festival. "I think so. I wish there'd been more fireworks, though." But it wasn't so bad hanging out under the awning. Now if only there hadn't been so many people around...
"Yeah," says Maria, turning to look around herself. "I never played here as a kid or anything, you know," she remarks, entwining her fingers behind her back some more. "...Did kids use to play here?" she asks out loud, as if confused. But it's easy come, easy go: she's briefly troubled, then not so much (at least not about that) at all.
There are other sins that weigh heavier on Maria's heart, after all.
"Uchida-san... I see," Maria says, nodding as if she gets it. "Yeah. It's a problem when you have a bad dream. But at least, when you wake up, it's over?"
She just wishes she could shake the feeling that stays with her. Like she's tripped over her own grave, somehow.
"Um, sure! Uh..." Maria says, when Umie says she'll pray with her. Placing her palms together in front of her, Maria closes her eyes and thinks--
Please let it be nothing.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Lightning could be a *sort* of fireworks."
Lightning is also an excellent way to ensure there's less people, but it comes with some huge drawbacks.
"Neither did I." Maybe, at 11, she would have felt too old to do that, even if the option was there. "So you're from Sumaru City too?"
wait, no, Umie, don't imply that statement was being used as some sort of gotcha!!
'Did kids used to play here?' *Now* Umie is confused. "Well, you just said--" Oh, wait, she meant 'during festivals'. Right.
Bad dreams can be woken up from. But then again, that would imply that Maria should have nothing to pray about.
Seeing Maria's pose, Umie copies it.
And, for the hell of it, she has one of her own:
Please let this all work out. For everyone's names I saw in that Palace.
She looks up, reaching for a coin. You throw coins in, right?
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"It's not as colorful, though," Maria complains, her shoulders sagging. "But it can be pretty neat..."
Is she from Sumaru City too? "Uh huh! I wasn't born here, though. My grandparents live in Rengedai," she explains, turning to point out towards the rest of the ward (well, some of the rest of the ward). "After mom's accident, we came to live here with them. Well, except dad."
She looks briefly more blankly confused than usual, which is a feat. "Um... I think," Maria says, still coming away from the sense that a while ago, there were kids playing here (did she play here) (did that ever really happen at all). "...No, never mind."
That was weird. It was like she remembered something, but she never played here. There's no way her grandmother would have allowed it. When she'd been six, the rumors said, a child had been killed here.
In silence, they pray together.
Maria stands in silence, trying to remember what else you're supposed to do here. Her grandmother showed her when she was little, but--!
"Um. I guess... that's it," she says, lowering her hands.
"...She'd said it wasn't normal, didn't she?"
Who did?
"Your friend, Uchida-san. About, dreaming about dying." This is Maria's deadly serious face, a face that perhaps Umie hasn't seen straight on just yet. "When you dream about dying, what do you dream about? Do you know how it happens?"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Thunderstorms are great," says Umie Akabane, the person with the persona affiliated with women of various ages throwing shade on various warriors in the shape of foretelling their rapidly approaching death.
Umie grins. "Eh? I wasn't either, to be truthful. I was originally born in Aomori." Her smile becomes just a tad sharp in its mischeviousness. "It was only for a few years, but I can fake an accent if I try."
After Mom's accident. Her smile dampens to a neutral line. "I see." No telling what kind of accident, but it couldn't have been minor, if it meant they had to move.
'Um... I think.' "..." Umie is silent, pondering her own deja vu, if in the form of what Tatsuya has said.
Besides, Umie realizes... That's right. That's the reason she likely never would have been allowed to play here. "Probably not, after..."
'... said it wasn't normal, didn't she?'
... A razor's edge at the sacred junction; by first snow, the time for change had come and gone.
Umie closes her eyes and shakes her head of the words, as Maria mentions dreams about Death.
"I rarely remember," she says, instead. "What about you?"
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"I like them best when I'm indoors," Maria confesses, in what probably isn't an uncommon experience when it comes to, say, thunderstorms.
"Aomori..." Maria murmurs, and one can see the mental calculus running. "Oh! I see. Do you remember it? I was born in Tokyo, but I don't remember it." She pauses, and even Maria realizes this is a silly thing to say, for: "I mean, when I was little!" she says, waving both hands in the air before her dismissively. But Umie gets quiet when she speaks about her mother's accident, and Maria looks away, fidgeting with a stray lock of hair. "I mean..."
But she trails off, grappling with the sudden sense of a reality that she's pretty sure she never experienced for herself. "...No," she says, agreeing with Umie. Of course she didn't understand it as a kid, just that she was told never go there alone. But it was impossible to escape that story as she got older. Murders happen in Sumaru, sometimes. Child murders, rather less so.
....they never caught who did it, either...
Umie, though, says she doesn't remember the specifics.
"Not... much," Maria confesses, shaking her head. "It's the same dream. I'm running away from something. There's a figure suddenly, and then, it hurts. I know that I'm dying and... then I wake up." She looks over at the shrine, her face in profile.
"Does it mean something...? It started happening after my grandpa died this year." So it's been on her mind, death? "I keep thinking like... maybe it's what's going to happen."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Sure, if you want to do it _safely_," Umie teases. Oh that Maria, having strange ideas like 'being inside during a thunderstorm is a good idea'.
"Kind of," Umie says, frowning. "Mostly my grandma, apples, and how big the sky was." And something about being sick. As for the rest?" "Nono, I get what you meant," Umie says, chuckling. "I mean, unless you were a genius baby. Maybe you remember your previous life~" She wiggles her fingers for effect.
Ah. Maybe the accident wasn't that bad, if Maria's reacting this way. "Oh, I just..." She itches her cheek with her left hand, red charm bracelet chiming with the movement of her hand. "Sorry, I jumped ahead of myself."
Ah, Umie, you did it again.
Still, that hungry little blackbird in Umie's soul zeros in on Maria's tale.
That's... odd. (Exciting. What is it? A clue? What is it, she'd like to know. Let her pick this lock and see what's on the other side.)
That's unusual. (Could it be related to something else? The Old Maid? Something Crawling in the seams of reality?)
That's... possibly something Maria is misremembering. Her grandpa just died. Death would be on her mind, and dreams would naturally pick up on that.
.... But they're in a shrine where things just seem to happen. (One of which Umie caused to happen, by calling two brothers to convene at the same place without telling the other. Somehow nothing burned down.)
Umie takes a step towards Maria; even if they're close enough that her abilities would sense Maria's resonance, she might as well focus in, that pale face framed by those two long bangs as she frowns.
There is no resonance, that Umie could detect. Someone with the ability to shroud wouldn't necessarily be acting this way, either.
Could this be someone who's on the edge of Awakening? What would that even be like?
"Have you seen or heard anything odd since your Grandpa died?" Umie asks, softly. "Not in your dreams, but while awake."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"I like not getting struck by lightning," Maria protests, a rare demonstration of level-headedness from a girl who otherwise seems to be from Cloud Cuckooland.
Umie remembers a few things about Aomori. "Your grandma? So that's who you lived with?" Pause. "Oh, were you sick, then?" Umie jokes that maybe she was some kind of genius baby. "No, nothing like that!" Maria affirms, only to hesitate when Umie goes on to joke that perhaps she recalls a previous life instead. "A previous life... I wonder..."
But here she doesn't elaborate. She doesn't even talk about her mother's accident further, when Umie apologizes.
Instead, she details her dreams when prompted, or what she can remember about them awake. "It's the same thing, over and over. It's like I'm stuck in a loop," she confesses, unburdening herself on a veritable stranger. "I keep wondering if, maybe, I..."
Umie steps closer, close enough that Maria sucks in a breath, watching Umie with widened eyes. "What-- am I?" she utters, looking down at herself, then all around.
There's no sense of resonance. Nothing at all. If she has a Persona, she's concealing it well.
But more likely, she doesn't have one at all.
Has she seen anything strange? Anything at all?
Maria, who has literally been in the same room as a demon and not realized it, shakes her head. "I went to a haunted house, but it was just actors. And--"
She thinks about the subway crash, months ago. She thinks more directly about her cellphone. She thinks about that soft click on the other end, four times over.
Four is death.
"And-- that's it," she finishes, her arms flat at her side and her gaze averted.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"My parents had to commute a lot for work. My hometown was largely a bedroom community. So, Grandma would fill in." Umie hums. "Yeah. I don't remember much. It was just a one time thing, but it was serious enough that I had to go to a larger hospital to get appropriate care."
It's hard to imagine. Did her parents even notice, back then, Umie wonders. What sort of people were they, when she was that little, compared to how they are now?
"... Don't take what I say too seriously." This is towards Maria's comment about previous lives. Something about it felt like she *needed* to say something, with all the strange references to other times, events that don't sync up, and things that crawl in the dark.
And yet, in the same minute, Umie's stepping closer, chin in one hand, openly examining Maria like she was searching for something just beyond Maria's physical body.
Her eyelidss lower, brown irises darkened by the angle of shadow.
"Hm." There is, of course, another thing Umie feels: Maria is in her 'time of Joka', as the phrase elegantly goes. What does it mean? Umie doesn't know. It seems to corelate with Wang Long, which *should* be complete and utter nonsense.
But Maria, also, is hiding something.
Umie shouldn't do this.
SHe tilts her head, letting one bang hang closer to the ground, the other angled against her cheek. "Do you believe in the concept of 'luck', in any sort of way, Maria Sakurai? There's something that's telling me you have more to say."
She's bullshitting it as she goes, basing it on something tenuous at best, to reach something that may not even exist. Maria could be nervous about visiting a shrine with a tragic history, where a strange blonde woman is examining her within a half hour of introducing herself.
But dreams about death, a loop of events that never end, and the vibe of bad luck make for a mystery Umie needs to examine a little closer.
"If you feel open to talking about it."
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Huhhh," Maria says, as if this were surprise knowledge to her (regarding Umie's childhood with her grandmother). "I guess we have that in common, then? We were both raised by our grandparents." She pauses. "Sort of." If Maria's dad isn't around, apparently, and her mother was in an accident, and she says her grandparents largely raised her...
"I'm glad you got better! It's not much fun, being in a hospital for a long time," and the way that Maria's gaze averts suggests she might just know that one first-hand.
Don't take what she says too seriously, Umie says. "Well, okay, then," Maria tells her, because she's nothing if not the (...mostly) agreeable type. But Umie is approaching her now, and Maria, head in the clouds or not, has at least enough survival instinct to find this unnerving and it shows. Her body tenses, one sneaker half-crunches on the stone behind her. Maria was on the track team, and can still book it if necessary, but even if her nerves are all a-jangle,
she's still Maria.
"Is there something on my face?" she wonders, drawing up both arms as if to guard herself. "--Luck? Well, of course! Um, you know Wang Long, right?" Pause.
Pause.
"Well, I'm an emotional White Dragon! Because I was born in March? ...But it's just been bad luck all year. Everyone says it means I'm in my time of Joka, but even though I keep buying charms... They say you have to wait it out, though." Maria sighs, the topic near and dear to her heart permitting her to relax at last.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Mostly for that first bit of my life." Umie readjusts the grip of her fingers on her purse strap. "My parents and I moved a year or two later after all of that. And then, moved again, a few years later, to Sumaru City."
Normal things, that happen to normal people. Six years can mean little in the span of a person's life, but when it was the first six years of your life, they can mean so much more.
'It's not much fun, being in a hospital for a long time.' Umie's tone softens, realizing where that statement could be stemming from, for Maria. ".... Yeah." Her mother could still be alive, if there was a long hospital stay, but if not... either way, it would have been traumatic for Maria.
Bloody tiles and greenlit walls is another sort of trauma, but if someone were to trace the cognitive seed where these things came from, it could be from the same tree as Maria's own.
Maria tenses, as Umie nears, and for good reason.
And it's enough to make Umie step back herself, realizing where she overstepped her bounds in her hunger.
"No," she says, stepping back another step. "Your face is perfectly fine. I just have a bit of a..." She taps a nail against her chin. "Call it a 'sense', for certain things. Not enough to run a tarot business, though, or be a celebrity mystic."
Maybe this is another one of those times where Umie wants Maria to not take what she says too seriously.
"Yeah, I know Wang Long." Umie adjusts her hairband, frowning. "Oh, March, then... I'm right after you, in April. The Scarlet Dragon. Great name, but is pretty much all downsides."
Bad luck all year, huh... "You are, actually. In your time of Joka." She just says it. "Usually, they'd be right. These things come and go. But you say yours has been all year?" She tilts her head. "I'd take those lemons and make lemonade if it were me, but perhaps it's just coincidence that I manage to see you when you were; the rest of your year could have just be the normal sort of luck." She shrugs. "Bad things happen regardless of luck, after all. Me just saying 'you're in your time of Joka' could have doomed you too; the cognitive effect of having your beliefs confirmed could be more powerful than whatever... all this... is."
Though. "What charms have you tried, then?" That'll get Maria to relax, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"Mm." Maria is noncommital, her gaze skirting Umie. She purses her lips, but says nothing else on the topic of long hospital stays, or even her childhood.
It's not until Umie backs up and confirms that there's nothing the matter with Maria's face that Maria is herself able to relax, like someone pulling her strings let their grip slacken at last.
It also might help that Umie explains herself. At that, Maria's eyes widen in something approximating alarm. "What? You're psychic?" Pause. Pause. Pause. "How cool! Um, can you tell me what I'm thinking of right now?"
Didn't Umie just say that it's not enough to read tarot cards or be a mystic, though...?
"Oh, a Scarlet Dragon! They're real warriors!" Maria cheers, pulling away from the more serious persona (lower case, lower case!) that she'd displayed just moments ago. "That means you're tough, and you'll win in any fight! ...Not real fights, though," Maria adds, pressing her hands together thoughtfully. "It doesn't mean that kind of thing literally. Like, I'm 'emotional', but it doesn't mean I'll cry at the drop of a hat or anything, right!"
It's not a question, it's a declaration. She's not that kind of person. She's just not.
Maria nods. "Uh huh. Since my grandpa died. This or that'd go wrong, or--" She goes quiet again for a moment, studying the shrine as if it contained the answer to all her problems. "Or, you know. Like, wrecking my bike?" Because even she can see that as the least of her problems at the moment. But she turns her attention back on Umie as she explains that it could be a matter of perspective. That maybe she's just thinking about it like that, for whatever reason. "Um..." Maria hazards. "That all seems kinda complicated..."
In other words, that might have gone right over her head.
But what has she tried? "Oh, you know! Omamori! I even bought some lucky candy, and an amulet that the lady said was going to bring me good luck in, um..."
Maria, once again, trails off.
It had been a lucky charm for love.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Definitely a sore spot. Umie lets the topic drop completely; if there was some sort of clue there, it's definitely not worth examining further. Sometimes dreams about death can just be what they are on the surface: examinations of concepts that the mind does not want to examine in waking life.
Alas, that also means Maria gets the reprieve she needs to ascend to her full power.
'You're psychic?' "... eeh?" Umie crosses her hands in front of her. "Nonono. Not psychic. More like, uh." _How do you even explain an ability this specific?!_
Umie doesn't even believe in Wang Long!!
"I just see when... there's a very specific reason that someone is having a bad day." There. She shrugs. "It's harmless, and it passes. And even then, there's a million reasons someone could be having a bad day, a bad week... etc. I just sense one possible cause."
OH FINALLY, someone has something good to say about Scarlet Dragons (wait no Umie totally does not believe in Wang Long shut up). Maria's words make Umie seem to puff up in pride, like a proud little blackbird after a magnificent dust bath. "I *am* very tenacious." (Nono, Umie thinks, that's how it starts: with very general nonspecific attributes you just naturally apply to yourself. Be better, Umie Akabane!)
"People tend to mistake one for the other," Umie discretely agrees, trying to work off that flush of pride. "That is, emotional, vs... being emotional. So, I get it."
Maria explains further, about her bad luck. "So..." Umie begins, holding up a finger as she fully turns on tutor-sensei mode. "Someone can have a bad day, and be in their time of Joka, but what aligns one with the other? If those series of incidents happen on another day, and I never tell you you're in your time of Joka... does me telling you this cause you to see everything bad that happens afterwards to be because of bad luck?"
Umie is not helping. At all.
Omamori, lucky candy, lucky amulets...
"Good luck in what?" Umie asks distractedly, as she considers this thought.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
Maria's very quick to take control, too. So to speak.
"Ohhh, more like 'sensitive'? So, you can feel, like," and here Maria turns 30 degrees to gesture, vaguely, "spirits! And ghosts! I bet you could tell if there were really ghosts in a haunted house!"
That's on her mind, because she was in one, recently.
But Umie says it's more specific than that. "Oh! So you can tell when someone's unlucky?" Her shoulders sag slightly. "I guess... I must have been like baseball to you, right?" Huhh?? "You know," Maria continues, perhaps sensing that she's making no sense, "moths are attracted to a game?" maria that's moths to a flame
"But, anyway, do you know how to get rid of bad luck? Like I said! I've tried a lot of things, but it's just not going away." As Umie starts talking about Wang Long, though, Maria nods. "See? See, it really works! Everytime someone says it's not true, it's because they're not looking hard enough. Besides, there's all these other factors. You have your Month Dragon, but then there's Day Dragons, and Hour Dragons, and..."
time to change the subject, Maria is going straight into Wang Long minutia hell, no one wants to go there with her
Umie does try. Maria listens to Umie try to explain correlation and causation.
Maria pulls the blankest expression known to man. "Uhhh..." she says. "No?"
Maybe she needs a better, simpler example. Maybe she needs to explain it like Maria is five, to use a certain parlance. Or maybe it's better to admit a certain defeat.
But, good luck amulets for what?
"Love," Maria says, without thinking about it too much. The face she makes afterwards suggests she's just said more than she intended. "Uh..."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"..." Technically, Umie.... could, but not in the way Maria's thinking. "I... uh. Well? I mean." One can see the way Umie's eyes switch from side to side, as if one side meant 'yes' and the other 'no'.
If the ghosts were demons, and this was Sumaru City, and maybe if it were something caused by rumors, or maybe if....
(oh no Maria's getting more powerful) "Whoah, uh, only in a really specific case." Again, Umie's crossing her hands in front of her.
.... Winning baseball teams?! "If I could predict winning baseball teams, I wouldn't be--" running around mementos by herself like a dumbass "--.... working retail." Which technically, Umie also does, but not when there's serial killers running around.
Maybe Umie's the one with the eternal bad luck, with her death-themed Persona and all. That can't get great luck at all...
Maria's meanwhile, has no such Persona hanging over her to explain away her woes, just burning questions that rapidly fall outside Umie's ability to answer. (Was there even a chance Umie could to begin with?)
yeah, umie is no match for maria
"Love?" Umie's eyes center on Maria.
Well, if she just said Maria had bad luck, perhaps she could use a bit of cognitive magic to make the opposite happen?
.... A little bit of mental hocus pocus hurts no one, right?
"Uh..." Umie makes a show of looking Maria over, tapping the nail of her index finger to her chin. "Hm. Yes."
"You... clearly are in... a love state. Your drought of love will be ending soon."
Congrats, Umie thinks derisively. You're spreading delusion, and you're not even trying to fight someone.
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
"If you could predict winning baseball teams, you could-- make a lot of money!" Maria, who should never be allowed to gamble, chirps. "Or, you could get the victory party prepared in advance! I'm always short on snacks when my favorite team wins..." Oh, so Maria's a real sports sicko, huh. Perhaps that also tracks.
But Umie can't do anything like that, so perhaps the point is moot??
"Do you work retail? So do I! Um. Well, I work at a cafe. For the summer!" she explains, gesturing excitedly with her hands. "I guess that's not really retail, huh? But it's kind of like it, spiritually!" Maria cheers, deciding this for herself.
Love?
Maria, her expression carefully, carefully neutral (and offset by widened eyes) nods mutely.
Love.
She's clearly in a love state. Her... drought of love will be ending soon.
"Huuuuh," Maria breathes, looking just that little bit skeptical. "But Akechi-sempai's not compatible..."
Well, that says everything about Maria's tastes in boys, maybe.
"Well... maybe it'll be alright. Soon, right? I'll... keep hoping, then!"
Pause. Pause. Pausepausepause.
"I'm sure I'll meet that perfect guy someday."
She just needs to hope that her last 'perfect guy' isn't about to be killed. By a killer.
Because of Maria.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"That's waaaay out of my wheelhouse. I'd have as much luck as the next person when it comes to gambling." Probably worse, in Sumaru City.
But the topic's gone to retail. "I mean, serving is pretty much hand in hand with retail. I'd get back into it, myself, but I promised a friend of mine I'd keep a spot open for her cafe when it finally opens."
It will never open; that is not how Toki works.
Perhaps that's why Umie feels a tad bit of familiarity in Maria, but there's also differences.
(.... just kidding there's one more)
'But Akechi-sempai's not compatible...'
Sorry, what was that? Oh, that's the sound of Umie, coughing on her spit, as one does when they have just failed at the most basic tasks of being alive.
Because Umie's forgotten that Akechi, the guy who's trolled her, made her blood pressure rise uncomfortably high, prodded her, and pushed her multiple times... on top of being an actually good person to turn to for logically sorting through some of the hardest concepts she's had to make sense of these past few months, as well as being a good ally to have in battle...
... is also still one of two heart throbs that exist in Seven Sisters.
"Ah, um. Well." Umie clears her throat, "maaaybe, uh, aim for someone who..."
How does someone explain a person like Akechi to someone like Maria?
She gestures. "You'd... want someone who's into sports."
WAIT HOW DOES UMIE KNOW AKECHI ISN'T INTO SPORTS (She fucking guessed.)
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
Knowing how things can work in Sumaru, it's a fair chance that someone using rumor to win big would soon lose big, in ways they could never have guessed. A purely benevolent rumor is a rare thing... and usually doesn't last.
Just look at the rumor about the Seven Sisters Emblem. No one's stopping the Joker Killer (necessarily; YMMV) now!
"It's kind of fun," Maria says, about working service. "I don't think I want to keep doing it when school starts again, you know, but, I think I could do it now and then?" Maria that's not how shifts work.
But Umie has a sudden coughing fit when Maria brings up Akechi, and Maria looks at her the way a confused dog would regard an unidentified flying object. "You think it's weird, too, right? It's okay!" Maria affirms, flapping a hand through the air dismissively. "If I tried to date him, the other girls would kill me! But I think it's okay to say he looks nice. And he is nice!"
Ignorance truly is bliss.
"Someone who does sports?"
That, there, is the moment when Maria finally lays claim to the braincell. She looks downright thoughtful.
"Someone who does sports..."
Huh.
Is that where she went wrong last time? But-- that's still neither here nor there, because. Because first she needs to make sure that she hasn't condemned her ex (even if a part of her still feels like he might have deserved it a little).
Or... condemned herself.
That braincell is working overtime now. Wait. What time is it now?? Maria digs in her purse, looks at her phone's time display, and immediately pulls the face of the silent scream.
"Oh no! --Anyway, um! It was nice talking to you, Umie-san! But I have to run to make the train!!"
Otherwise she'll be late. To her part-time job. The one she'd almost forgotten she had a shift for today.
With that, Maria is quickly a blur, running for the gate. Did she used to do track or something? ...She's pretty fast.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Ha ha haaaaaaaaaa yeaaaaahhhhh
yeah
Umie's never going to get that investment in Kuzunoha Detective Agency's Rumormonging abilities back. They definitely did the work!
However reality is never truly that kind to an Umie Akabane with Good Intentions.
"N-no, Akechi-san's..." Umie coughs once or twice, clearing a bit of her throat. Oh, she'll regret this, but she just can't let someone feel like it was a slight against them. "To be truthful, I do know him. He's a smart guy, and yeah, he is good-looking, and he puts a lot of effort to be that way. However..."
She lets out a slow sigh, closing her eyes. "... Yeah, his fan club would kill you." She shakes her head. "But seriously, no, I don't think it's weird for anyone to feel an attracted to someone around their own age, celebrity detective or no. It's okay to feel that way, as long as you know those feelings may not be reflected back at you." She's gone full on tutor-sensei mode again. why does she keep going this
And besides that, this is really ironic, Umie considers with a grimace, considering how she was acting last time she was around a masked guy who saved her.
"Yeah, having shared interests is always a good start!" Wait, how did Umie go down this road? She was doing so much better before...
_They still haven't figured out about the death dreams_
"Oh, uh, yeah, go get it!"
It's when she watches the impressively fast runner do her magic that Umie realizes that, unfortunately, they never exchanged numbers, in case Maria remembered anything else.
Really, it's not needed; this could be a normal girl, who has looping dreams about being chased by someone and dying, as well as a bad luck streak(?)....
....
................. finnnnneeee Umie'll hit up Seven Sisters sometime....