2026-01-13: Sugar and Salt
- Log: Sugar and Salt
- Cast: Shinjiro Aragaki, Umie Akabane
- Where: Naganaki Shrine, Iwatodai City
- OOC Date: January 13, 2026
- IC Date: September 09, 2012
- Summary: Umie and Shinjiro, unable to find a place where they can bake a cake, opt instead to pick up some cake, and to eat it at Naganaki Shrine. They catch up on the many events that have happened, but like anything sweet, you need to have a little salt to appreciate it.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro and Umie made a promise to try baking together. The problem: Umie can't bake in her apartment and Shinjiro can't bring her to the dorm. After a moment of false despair, they decided to do the next best thing: eat cake together.
By the time they get to Naganaki Shrine, the sun's starting to wind down, so it's a little cooler. Shinjiro's in his red coat and beanie, school being off today, with a bag holding a cake in his left hand.
"It's really nice here, and they shouldn't get on us if we're clean and quiet," he tells her as he looks for a place to sit on a nearby bench.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
What a terrible dilemma!
".... Maybe if I make a... skillet cake..." Umie wonders aloud. "Maybe if I put a bunch of pancakes on top of each other, and then, put frosting around it... but then I'd need to figure out how to bring it over here on the subway..."
Therein comes that latchkey kid thinking: making do with what you had around, even if it meant some pretty unholy culinary concoctions. However, a pancake 'cake' was one monstriosity Umie never had to consider, purely because of the access to an oven: a rather nice one, in fact, in retrospect.
Entering the Naganaki Shrine, the blonde reflects on how much smaller the place feels, now that the festival has come and gone.
Dressed with a white jacket over a red top, white cloth half-gloves cover her upper arms, over what Shinjiro would know is the Mark, at least on her right wrist. (Is it strange that Shinjiro and Shiryuu asked the same question about the Mark?)
"It's just your birthday again," suggests Umie, as they sit on some benches against the wall overlooking the playground area. Thankfully, no children are here now due to the time of day; it'd be awkward to be eating delicious cake in front of them.
"So, happy birthday again." The second bag holds some drinks, napkins, and plastic utensils, which Umie sets out over the bench space between them. "Not as thrilling the second time, but it *does* make the experience a little different, doesn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"How many birthdays am I going to get in thirty days?" Shinjiro teases, since he celebrated it twice, even if there's a sad note to the whole thing that he tries to brush away.
He hasn't talked to Umie in person in a short bit. He regularly texts her, and has occasionally sent her a meme or a cat picture, but otherwise it's mostly check-ins to make sure everything's okay.
"It's nice. It's been a weird week, you know. School is... it feels familiar and different all at the same time. Haven't missed a day, at least."
Bringing the cake out of his bag to set with the utensils on the desk, Shinjiro turns over to Umie. "How have you been holding up?"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Umie sees that sad note.
She refuses to give it any attention.
"Complain any harder and I *will* see what I can make just using a toaster and a hotplate," Umie threatens, leveling a lavender nail up at Shinjiro's face.
In spite of the lack of face to face communication, for Umie, it feels like no time at all. Perhaps, that's just a consequence of her not being in school, and instead being subjected to the whims of adult life.
Summer really does seem to pass in the blink of an eye...
"I bet. Are you managing well enough, though?" She slings an elbow on the back of the bench. "I bet you're the talk of the school; Mr. Tall-and-mysterious~ You'll have a fan club before you know it, I imagine..." Her smile slips to something positively devilish. "Then you really will begin to regret coming back. Any teachers or classes you're liking so far?"
As for Umie? "Weelll, mostly boring, until I really think back on it all." A lot of it is subjects she just can't talk about over cake, but if she's threatening to feed him cake so much, maybe it's better *to* involve him in things.
"For one, if that bridge ninja ever bothers you again, tell him that you'll tell me all about it." She smirks at Shinjiro, though the expression is less directed at him and more at another person who is... not present. "We've come to a... certain understanding, one can say. The guy tried to go after the Old Maid, for example."
As much as she tries to tailor it towards a funny story, she can't.
"He's a strange one," she says, instead.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"You're a criminal, Umie." Shinjiro instantly replies to her threat (it's definitely a threat).
He'll start serving the cake himself, thinking to her question. "Tch, it's not like that. I disappeared for long enough no one knows who I am. The winter uniform in the summer's got gossip going, but no oen says anything to my face."
A beat.
"Well, Mr. Ekoda did, but he's a prick. Other than that... nah, just trying to get through it." Shinjiro shrugs as he finishes plating, handing one to Umie and taking his own.
"That's... good? You two friends now or something?" He doesn't seem to mind, though... "I'll remember that."
Though as he takes a bite of cake, his face sours soon after, but not from the taste. "The Old Maid... you think we're running out of time? He's planning something big with that video announcement he made. And... I don't think he's just making shit up, either."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"You're only discovering that now?" Umie grins, handing Shinjiro his drink. "You need to be faster on the take, Shinji-kun. Or maybe you were so taken by my sweet, innocent nature that it took until now tom discover I was a devil in disguise?"
(She's being sarcastic, thankfully.)
To have no one remember you when you come back... there's two ways that can go. Umie's eyelashes lower as she takes the slice of cake. "Does that make you... feel sad, that no one seemed to remember you? Or was it more like a blessing in disguise, like you could redefine who you are?"
Aside from the things he can't change.
"Well, screw Mr. Ekoda-san, then." Umie takes a declarative bite of cake, washing it down with some of her soda. "Does it make it easier, that there's lots more SEES members?" Even if being in SEES didn't mean they'd understand all of why you left, or why you dress like it's winter in summer.
Is she... friends. With Shiryuu Ryouhara. Umie's eyebrows raise as she tries to put words to the concept of 'what the heck is going on between her and Shiryuu'. She tries again.
Finally, she waves a hand. "Ask Reiya Aomori and I bet he can give you some hot gossip there. He was with a few of your SEES classmates when they intervened in a matter I had completely under control with a certain Okaga-san, who, if his current patterns hold, you'll probably see more of. Anyway, not only did my personal face-off with Okaga-san get interrupted by some well-meaning SEES members, Mr. Bridge Ninja also showed up, and--"
What should be a humorous, if dangerous story lurks into those in-between sections of knowledge, where secrets are glimpsed, reminding Umie of other questions still left unanswered. "Really, what I should be mentioning is..." She looks down at her slice of cake. "This 'Okaga-san' used an Evoker like yours. As in... like yours, specifically, Shinji-kun."
There's also the part with the Old Maid. "... I intervened in another case, this time concerning someone named Maria Sakurai," Umie says, quietly. "She went to my old school: Seven Sisters."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"Hmmm. No, that part was pretty obvious." Shinjiro takes his drink without batting an eye, before sighing to the part about school. "...a little of both. On one hand, I don't have to burden anyone. On the other..." He trails off, looking over to the shrine.
"I guess? At the least, Kirijo knows and will have my back. But no one but her knows about my condition within SEES."
Shinjiro turns it around in his head about Shiryuu and Okaga. "Never heard the name. Glad everyone was able to drive him off, but..."
His eyes darken at the Evoker. Is he with the NWO? No, more likely...
"Strega?" Shinjiro asks. He hasn't told Umie directly where he got his Evoker, but he exhales. "I had a business relationship with Strega for the last two years." Same amount of time he's been on his meds. "I paid them and maybe traded some information, they gave me what I needed. That's how... I got that Evoker so fast, when we saved Yamagishi."
Shinjiro digs into his cake, clearly awkward. The part about Maria, at least, doesn't slip by him. "There was also an attack at Shujin. I poked around with Uchida."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"At least hesitate a *little*," Umie jokes, knowing full well she prefers Shinjiro just this way.
Even if it hurts, sometimes, when those words are pointed towards himself. "... It's okay to want things for yourself," she murmurs. "Punishing yourself won't correct anything in the grand scheme of things. Especially when it comes to connections; they'll be around, even if you're not face to face." That seemed to be a better way of getting the point across, rather than saying 'when you're gone'.
Why punish herself more than she needs to?
"I see," Umie reflects quietly, as she eats another piece of cake. "Maybe that's for the best, in the long run. You get to decide who knows, instead of making it everybody's problem."
Okaga. Shinjiro's never heard of the name. "Me and Uchida-san from the Kuzunoha Detective Agency came across him opening a coffin during the Dark Hour." She looks at Shinjiro directly now, her expression as solemn as a funeral. "You would be the one person who'd understand why I'd take extra offense to that. So... I've made a point of trying to catch him in the act again."
Strega? Shinjiro asks. "That or NWO," Umie murmurs. "I'm beginning to lean more the former, though. It *does* sound like something they'd do, right?"
And then, Shinjiro comes out with it. Umie's eyes widen. "But that's..." She takes a moment to digest this, turning his words over in her mind.
He's willing to tell her, for once, and the Joker Killer wasn't always with them, right? And two years means...
".... Your meds, right." She frowns. "... Aomori-kun is looking into the matter of the non-SEES Evokers."
It's a statement, and nothing more, since when it comes down to it, Umie can't fully know if she could trust Reiya, even if, at the same time, she doesn't have any reason *not* to trust him.
"Make of that what you will."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro doesn't hesitate. That's just how he is! Not until she tries to get him to want things for himself.
"Some days, I feel lonely. I ask people to go hang out. And then I realize I have no idea how to do that anymore, like I'm acting from a faded script. Two years is a long time to isolate yourself. And... a lot of days, I barely feel like I know how to be alive anymore."
"Well, if you need help catching him, let me know," he does say on the subject of Okaga.
"...Could be. NWO could do it. But their model is said to be different, right?"
Reiya's mentioned. Shinjiro nods once, to both that and his meds.
"I wonder if Kirijo asked him... but then, I don't think she would. So why...?" Probably his mother, right? There's a lot he doesn't understand.
"There's a lot I don't understand. But I think everything's connected. The sooner we can end the Dark Hour... hopefully the sooner less of this matters."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"... There'll be some rough spots, I imagine. But, you have one thing many SEES members don't: experience," Umie points out, literally, poking her plastic fork in the air. "Even if you guys never went into Tartarus until everyone else did... they need to understand what it means, to be a person with a Persona once the newness wears off."
Her lips purse.
"You may even sometimes feel it sets you apart, to have those few years over many others, even if you may may feel like you haven't have done much of anything at all." And that won't even tackle the parts Shinjiro punished himself over.
"But they may remind you of things you might've forgotten yourself. That's my take, from what I've learned myself, as the 'senpai'."
NWO, or Strega? "We'll find out, sooner or later. As for help..." She shrugs. "The hard part is just catching him in the act. I can't justify beating him up if he never does it again, right? Not that I *want* to. The guy's as tall as you, and just as skinny--"
And just as sick.
"..."
She lets the topic be, for now, switching to Reiya. "I mean, it's not like I can give great reasons when I involve myself in something," Umie remarks, dryly. "I'm sure there's a reason, but he's not going to tell someone like me."
'The sooner we can end the Dark Hour...'
"Mnh." Umie tries to hide the taste if discontent in her mouth with a spoonful of cake.
She tries to imagine a life without that extra hour.
She tries to imagine a life where she didn't have that quiet, or that freedom.
She tries to imagine a life where fewer people disappeared without a trace.
They both understand the costs.
"..." It's why Umie can't look Shinjiro in the eyes now.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"...yeah," Shinjiro says with a nod. He doesn't even contest the senpai, for once, mulling it over. Maybe hanging with them will help him... even if it's scary.
"Tall, skinny..." Shinjiro's taking mental notes. "Okaga, you said? If I see him, I'll let you know."
He brushes over the Reiya subject though, because Umie has discontent, and can't look him in the eyes. Shinjiro frowns, taking a shaky breath...
Then, he gently clasps a hand on Umie's shoulder, before moving it back to his lap after a moment of contact. "I'm sorry. I just... we're all so young. Nobody asked us. Even if there's good and bad... I wish we had more of a choice in the matter. More of... an idea of what it'd be like."
Maybe if they knew, many bad things would be averted. Or maybe it'd be worse. Either way... no one else would end up like him.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"... Yes. Carries a rusty cleaver. Can't miss him." If he's a part of Strega, is it because he took the same pills?
Maybe that's why he's been sighted in Port Island; maybe he's connected to... all of that.
And what is all of that, anyway...? Kirijo seems like a good company.
She feels a hand on her shoulder.
"No, it's..." Umie sighs. "I don't need--" No. Be truthful. "You shouldn't give me your sympathy, or your empathy, especially since you guys have been dealing with the Dark Hour in a way I never did."
Just how long has the Dark Hour been around, if it's always been there for her? That's nearly a decade, at least.
"The Dark Hour was scary at first, but after a year, I began to really see how freeing it was. The year after that, it was like a stress valve. As I got stronger and better with my Persona, it was like another world, filled with demons and shadows. I can't tell you how many times I nearly died, but also, how much I felt alive. Which... made the parts when I went to school the next day seem so... tiring." Well, literally, since it was the Dark Hour.
"Imagine having this whole part of yourself and closing it away from everyone else you know. I never chose the Mark, or my Persona, but neither did I choose my life. But everything I did then, I chose."
Even the one thing she wished she could take back. "By the time I sensed other people like me, I was convinced they were trying to find me, due to what I did."
She waves a hand nonchalantly. "I'm only telling you this because it's something no one else is going to admit: for some of us, the Dark Hour was, and perhaps, still is, freedom."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro listens to Umie explain how the Dark Hour affected him. She knows his story, of course, but he's never fully heard this, and he's looking over at her as she explains, intently paying attention.
"... I guess that's where our lives diverged, despite both just being kids. For you, it's freedom, for me, it's the cage. ...even so, I'm still going to feel empathy."
He takes a small bite of his cake.
"If it gave you life, that's... that's something good it did, then. I can't change my goals. But I don't see you any differently for feeling that way, you know?"
He waves his own fork. "Hell, I was the same way, before I fucked up my life. I wanted to help so bad, make a difference. These things affect us in different ways."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
And yet, it's more complicated, the more Umie tries to pin it down.
"... No, I just had more time before I messed up. I received my Persona when I was eleven." She looks up, a faint smirk on her face, as she leans against her hand. "Four whole years before I made my mistake. I should be more proud of myself, considering how young I was." Her smile disappears. "By the same token, by the time I did what I did... I should have known better."
She sips her soda.
"I made the cage myself, and hid like a coward," she says bluntly, looking Shinjiro directly. "Meanwhile, people like you had to take on a mantle far too heavy, and carry on against an aspect of the Dark Hour I never considered. I was playing pretend in the shadows, while you guys did the real thing, years later."
Contradictory it may be, but the Dark Hour itself is a time of contradictions.
"It gave me freedom, but it took yours away, and it takes the lives away of many people, each night."
'Hell, I was the same way, before I fucked up my life.'
"...." Umie takes another bite of cake. "... It's too bad, we couldn't have sent ourselves back to help each other. I bet you were barely any shorter at fifteen than you are now."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"...should a kid really know better?" Shinjiro says, but doesn't push, because it's inviting hypocrisy he doesn't want to dwell on. But then..
He gets frustrated, just a bit. His voice becomes firm, not quite angry. "...don't talk about yourself that way. You were fifteen. This life isn't fair to any of us, and that includes you."
He knew his consequences. Did she? No. So it's different.
"After all... keep moving forward, right? That's what you told me."
He does finally come down, though, with Shinjiro moving to crack open his soda, nodding about helping each other. "...well, we can help each other now." He will not reveal the secrets of tall just yet. Maybe some other time.
For now, he'll keep eating. He doesn't really want to spend *all* this time ignoring the cake. It's supposed to be a good moment...
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Umie opens her mouth, but finds herself caught in the same trap as Shinjiro.
Weird, to find Shinjiro echoing similar words to what she was telling Shiryuu, when he acted like what happened to him was somehow alright, because it happened when he was an undefined age that was just simply 'older' than Umie herself.
Keep moving forward. "<Correct>. Good work, Shinji-kun," she says, slowly grinning. "Ah, there you go, getting senpai points. You're going to catch up to me... Such a terrible fate, for someone like me."
Shinjiro's frustration doesn't seem to deter Umie's mood any; she seems pleased, in fact, that he voiced his frustration at all.
"Yes." She rolls her shoulders, and raises her own can, tilting it back and forth between her fingers. "We'll be the people we wished we had. And damn good ones, at that."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"Who knows, maybe I'll be the senpai eventually," SHinjiro says as he lets the tension loosen from his muscles instead of dwelling on the frustration.
And instead... he just nods, smiling. He's glad to have a friend like her.
"Now, let's finish this cake. It's definitely a good day for it."