2026-01-08: Bronze Medal
- Log: Bronze Medal
- Cast: Umie Akabane, Miho Ijuuin
- Where: Ebisu Beach, Konan Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: January 08, 2026
- IC Date: September 07, 2012
- Summary: Umie meets with the mysterious Miho Ijuuin, not realizing this isn't the first time they've met on this very beach. While the two look to each other for something to reach their own ends regarding the Mark, neither comes away with what they want, nor do they go empty-handed, even if it's more questions than answers.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Yua's marriage to Kimitake has come and gone. The rental yukata has been returned, the day's makeup has been washed, hair restyled. A nervous bride is nothing to be anxious over; it's a big life step, and the most important things is: both parties are willing. Life goes on, for both those with and without a Mark, and if Yua can make it, that's a plus for Umie as well. Aside from a brief recognition between Miho and Umie, in fact, the wedding was incredibly 'normal', aside from parts Umie can't help but wonder are NWO adjacent. But what is a grand life celebration without someone's undeeded hot take on society?
Or comments from the bride herself--
But that, again, is just the way the NWO's promotion of extremist Japanese nationalism, wrapped with an equally extreme view of traditional Japanese culture--
And furthermore--
(Maybe it's just Umie making this all about Umie, when it's not, she thinks. Better to have something to hate on than to face the terror she feels over her own future, uncertain as it is, _due to the NW--)
In other ways, it takes a few days before Umie feels ready to touch a potentially hot stove again, giving Miho a quiet text out of the blue, rather than a phone call.
A time, day, and location is reached, and as the day arrived, Umie found herself growing exceptionally nervous, like waiting for a punchline: 'And then, she met with the tall woman, and was never seen or heard from again!'
"That's not even much of a punchline..." Umie mutters to her reflection in the train window, lavender nails tapping a nervous rhythm with the train's thumps.
She closes her eyes and remembers, for a moment, the way Shiryuu's fingers traced the outline of her Mark, now covered by the white fabric of her light jacket. Her heartrate slows, briefly.
(Never forget: he's a part of them, too. It's just another way for the NWO to get its claws in her again. She can only trust herself, how many times does she have to learn that lesson?)
She can't even remember the time between stepping off the train and stepping into sand; her anxiety skipped past the unneccessary parts like an ad break recorded on a old VCR tape.
Seagulls fight over a piece of refuse as Umie steps onto the sands; with the day being overcast and rain being in the forecast for later, there's not many people as there could be, at this time of year.
Stray blonde hair flies in the salty breeze as she makes her way down to the ocean's edge, kicking off her sandals to go barefoot instead.
That's the way Miho will find Umie: seemingly Persona-less (though Miho would know better for many reasons), windbreaker shifting in the breeze, kicking water into the surf.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho Ijuuin has had little to say to the public about the wedding since it happened. And really, why would they ask? She's the groom's cousin, and the bride's best friend. Everything is normal.
Messages from Umie were welcome, and of interest. So, punchline or not...
Miho's shoes sink into the sand with each step she takes onto the beach. She's been here before, of course--but the last time, going after Katsuya Suou...
She remembers Umie, of course. From then, and from the wedding.
"Not quite out of season for a beach," the tall woman reflects as she comes to stand next to Umie, back straight, eyes forward. Her expression is intent as always. She is dressed in slacks and a dress shirt--masculine-leaning, but not men's attire. She wears gloves, too.
"Hello, Akabane-san."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
It all started on a beach, and it comes back to the same beach.
And today, everything is normal, even the two people meeting here.
(That may be the only punchline here, and it's still not much of one.)
Umie turns at Miho's voice, adjusting the red hairband to capture more of the finer hairs before she's forced to consume one while speaking. "Fancy meeting you here, Ijuuin-san." ... as if Umie wasn't the one who *invited* Miho here, but, with the slightly lopsided smile on her face, Umie is definitely in on the small attempt at humor.
Slacks, dress shirt, gloves. For someone that may or may not be connected with the NWO, Miho certainly does not waste time with trying to appear traditionally feminine, but, there are many who eschew those ways. And at Miho's height and ability, Umie considers, who *could* make her do something she didn't want?
"How is the bride?" Umie asks, choosing her next icebreaker carefully. "Doing well?"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Super normal.
"Yes, quite a surprise," Miho answers smoothly back. It isn't quite deadpan, more neutral. But she notices the smile and even returns it. "I'm pleased that you reached out."
A pause. There are ways of making even Miho do things, of course... Many of them to do with said bride.
"She's well," Miho says. "Adapting to a life change is always a bit stressful, of course."
"...And you?"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"I know, right?" Umie's head bobs once, as she draws a blonde bang behind one ear. "As for being please, well..."
At least someone is. Maybe Umie can make herself feel just as pleased by the end of this conversation.
'She's well.' "I bet." Her eyelids lower as she looks to the surf. "... Probably happy to get it over and done with, really, with the heat and everything. But, perhaps, a warm wedding equals a warm marriage, eh?"
'.... And you?'
'A shinobi stubbornly sat across from me in my own apartment, armed with a knife and a cartoon frog-shaped ice pack, and told me to go to sleep, and for some reason, I had the most restful night's sleep I've had in a while. What the hell is going on.'
"... Good," Umie says, her lips pronouncing the plain word with pinpoint precision.
In the background, seagulls shriek over a half-eaten cheeseburger plucked from an open trash can. The ocean waves incessantly continue their march across the sands, tickling over bare feet.
"Does Kimitake Ijuuin-san know about the Mark?"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"...Yes, the heat was sigificat," Miho allows. "We'll see if it does. I'm sure their relationship will be everything they hoped."
Umie says good. That'll do. But.. as the seagulls shriek--
"I won't answer that," Miho says plainly. "Questions as to Kimitake-san and questions about family in general... These I prefer to keep quiet."
"However," she says, "I will tell you about my own Mark. You..."
"You received yours from Gozen, did you not?"
"Not so for me."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
When Miho refuses to answer, Umie nods, her eyes flicking downwards.
Ah, yes. That's a fair reaction, to what *is* a personal question.
"... Right. My apologies."
But, without needing any prompting, Miho offers to speak about her own Mark.
Umie's lips form a line; her heartrate quickens.
'You received yours from Gozen, did you not?'
Where words came freely from her last night, here, she finds her throat dry, her eyes unable to look up at Miho's face.
"... Yes," she says, because it's the easiest answer she can give.
She lets Miho take the lead from there, sensing there's more Miho intends to say.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"It is fine." Miho didn't answer, but she isn't offended to be asked. Instead, she notices Umie's reaction; her eyes won't stay. Her body language differs.
"Many gain the mark from Gozen under false pretenses," Miho says. "Believing some blessing will be afforded them, only to be used by the Order."
"...Mine, however, did not come from Gozen. Instead, I believe it came from the man in my dreams--dreams that tell me of a world that must be. A world that was, and will be again."
When the Order's minions came to silence me, the Mark came, and with the power of my new Persona I destroyed them."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Indeed, there is something about Umie Akabane, who just may not be as forthcoming as Miho Ijuuin, all despite inviting her here, and being the one who approached Yua.
Maybe brides aren't the only one that get cold feet.
Miho's words are true; Umie suspected as much from what other Marked she's encountered, such as Hiroto.
But, to throw it on herself... it just makes Umie's throat tighten even moreso.
It's easier to say what happened, when you're the one controlling what someone may think of what a Mark means.
(Umie could portray herself as a victim, and then valiantly claim she's not. But she knows better, right? She's in the same group as everyone else who got a Mark: a fool.)
The screams of seagulls and the rough whoosh of waves provide a pleasant reality to sink back into, as Miho speaks about a 'man in her dreams'.
"It's an NWO lie," Umie persists. "The only world is this one." How can it come from any other source, than that? Another world... another lie for old men to pat themselves on the back over, to sell to desperate people. No need to look at this world, only the next. Write all your checks towards it, and ignore what's happening in front of you.
(Like her parents did, with her.)
The quiet from Umie is threaded with these thoughts, communicated by the lack of eye contact, and the way her feet refuse to move, sinking further into the sand with each wave. The casualness of her earlier mood is gone, but that would be an expected casualty of such topics.
"So you are not connected with them, in any way?" Umie finally asks, quietly, though her tone cannot fully scrub itself free of a sense of unease. "But Yua Ijuuin-san is, so..." She breaks off that sentence, quietly bidding Miho to finish it.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"No," Miho says, shaking her head at the persistent claim. "Their 'world without sin' is the lie. It does not exist; it cannot. Sin is natural to man; a world without sin is a world without people."
"But there is another world. I've Seen it. A world in which many things are different, and some are the same. A world kept from us by unknown forces."
"...But this world is also real, consequences within it persistent. Regardless of the 'truth', we must deal with the world we know."
However...
"That's incorrect," Miho says. "In order to save someone I care about, I joined them, that I could use what 'power' I could glean in order to find and protect her."
"But their path is not the path to the True World. I have never forgotten this."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Miho speaks, and relief floods Umie. _Finally_. Someone understands, if in a different way.
There's no space for anyone in that perfect world, should it ever exist; it is an object of vanity, at best, a means to turn everyone into a 'them' vs a more perfect 'us'.
(There is no winning when your goal is 'perfect', and your judges aren't even aware of how stacked the odds are.)
That relief instantly freezes into ice, dropping the warmth she felt at possibly finding some understanding.
'A world in which many things are different, and some are the same. A world kept from us by unknown forces.'
"...." Umie squeezes her eyes shut. So Sudou was speaking the truth, strangely enough: his belief in there being another world is separate from the NWO's. And it's just as deadly a poison, to make a man kill for it, and people like Tatsuya miserable because...
No, she can't fall into it, it's a trap that has *both* Tatsuyas ensnared.
It's all lies.
'Regardless of the 'truth', we must deal with the world we know.'
"I can... agree with that," Umie allows, quietly. "You're more honorable about it than I was, if you were doing it for someone else."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
There is... some understanding, indeed. But ot enough. Not the same.
"Hmmm."
Miho nods, then. "That's a start. ...But there is little honor in working for the Order regardless. In order to save someone I love, others must suffer. ...Cause, and effect. Action, and reaction. This is the way of the world. For one person to be happy, another must be unhappy."
"If you were formerly in the Order, then I am glad you no longer are. It is not a good organization of which to be a part; if I could right now, I would leave it."
"..."
She cosiders. "You are not suitable for what I require, I think."
"I will keep your secret if you keep mine. That will be enough."
"But if you wish something of me, we can make a deal."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Some understanding, but not enough, and not the same.
It's a common feeling, for Umie, so much so that it's easy for her to be sucked into those little moments where something seems to connect, and that mysterious door she unlocks opens to reveal something undefined she's searched for.
For someone to be happy, someone must be unhappy.
Umie's right hand goes to cover her mouth, as she mimes the action of thinking, not wanting her mouth to give her away.
(It's just another excuse. Another delusion. And Umie has to fight against them all, if she's going to--)
"... Part of the Order?!" Umie sputters--
-- and looks away, her expression softening. "I guess... technically, I was." Is this what Shiryuu meant, in a way?
"I was only eleven when it happened, after all. So... technically, I was, as much as a child could be." (Is she the only one who believes she's not a part of it?)
'You are not suitable for what I require, I think.'
"For what you...?" Umie sighs, and shrugs. "It wouldn't be the first time I didn't make the cut for something," she adds, with a wan smile. "Do I at least get the bronze?"
But, at least, she's smiling, as if coming around after revealing that first step.
"Deal. I'll keep it as long as it's worth the trouble." She smiles again, almost impishly, as her feet draw back from the deepening pools they fall into. "My secrets can only be worth so much; but you don't feel like someone who will make me reconsider."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Umie sputters, but Miho is calm. She explains; Miho listens.
"I do not blame you for what a child was made to do," Miho clarifies. "I only surmised that you were once a part of it in some way, from how you spoke. ...A child cannot consent to such a thing. So it is your parents who are or were part of it."
Umie sighs, and Miho quirks almost a smile. "It is nothing bad; i judge you a woman of conviction... and one of different ideals than mine. That is all. So you may have your 'bronze'."
Deal. Miho nods. "Good," she says. "I'll ensure that it remains worth the trouble."
"...For now, be well, Umie Akabane. I wish you luck in deterring the Order."
"...Know that I cannot fight with you today. But neither will I forget your face."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"I wasn't..." The words are weak in Umie's mouth. And so very contradictory. Does she want Miho's sympathy? Does she want Miho to believe that she, at eleven, willingly did everything?
If she was a victim, after all, there'd be nothing to hide, like the words that came from her mouth, and lead her into the attention of Tatzusou himself for that brief second.
(Yes, she's a victim. She didn't let anyone into her heart. But she did. But she didn't.)
There lies Umie's 'bronze' medal.
She snaps herself out of that loop, landing herself back into the world of screaming, rot, salt, and seaweed.
Umie blinks, and lets out a long, long sigh, like a deflating balloon. She waves a dismissive hand in from of her face, waving it to and fro. "Believe me, if I wanted to fight, I could have picked a better location. Not *only* would we be without our Personas, you're a world class athlete and I'm a conbini clerk. That's not even Bronze level, that's just 'stupid'. Secondly, sand. And third--"
'But neither will I forget your face.'
She looks at Miho, again, touching a fingernail to her chin. "I'll take that as a compliment, rather than a threat." Her smile blooms, opening slightly--
"...." Umie stops, and considers. "I do have one thing I've been curious about. There was... a murder, of someone who had a Mark. I came across the story, when doing some research," she lies, "as far as I can tell, she had a mark, similar to mine, in the same spot. The photo was hard to tell..."
All lies, to cover up the source, that being Akechi. "I couldn't find out much more. Maybe, with your position... you can find out more, including who the woman is. It's probably too little to go off of; I can't tell you much beyond that."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Umie does't want to fight. Miho nods. "That's correct," Miho says. "And while either one of us could make this a world in which we could summon our Personas..."
"Neither of us wishes to do that, do we?"
A pause. "Yes, do that. It wasn't intended as a threat, just a statement."
But one thing?
"...It may be too little to go on," she agrees. "But if there's any public mention of the Mark, the Order will want to know of it; that may be something I can use to our benefit."
"I'll look into it. ...Take care."
She tursn, and starts to go.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Umie grins coyly, as Miho intuits exactly where she was going.
"... Bingo," she says, holding up a finger.
Just a statement. Umie laughs. "Sorry, one thing you have to know about me, Ijuuin-san, is that I am *very* used to being paranoid. Call it an addiction. But I suspect you'd feel the same way, right?"
There's so much Umie wants to ask. There's so much Umie wants to say.
(There's so much Umie wants to hide, from Miho, because something in Miho's words about the Man scared her, and she's not sure why.)
It's fine.
"Most likely," Umie agrees, on the murder. She'll let it be a consequence, if so; there's much beyond that that she can't reveal, for fear of thrusting Akechi himself to the NWO's attention.
... Like how how Akechi mentioned she was plagued by voices and visions that told her not to trust him, and how, the next time he saw her, she was dead, with nothing recognizable, save for a Mark.
One that Akechi drew in front of Umie, in that sunlit classroom.
"You take care too, Ijuuin-san." As Miho turns, Umie does as well, leaving in the opposite direction, her path disturbing the seagulls that still fight over their fly-infested morsel.
Soon, their footprints will be covered, and it will be as if they never met at all, but their faces will remain in each other's memories.
For better or worse.