2026-03-22: Being Honest
- Log: Being Honest
- Cast: Kazusa Motojima, Katsuko Yoshinaga
- Where: Shujin Academy, Aoyama-Itchome, Tokyo
- OOC Date: March 22, 2026
- IC Date: Saturday, October 13, 2012 (Before Class)
- Summary: Kazusa is trying to take some time before class to continue her midterm studies. Katsuko approaches her to check on her... and the two actually manage to have something approaching a civil conversation.
(|=================== Shujin Academy - Classroom Building ====================|)
-==================================================== Tokyo/Aoyama-Itchome ====-
Shujin Academy is split between its main classroom building, which faces the
back streets of Aoyama-Itchome, and its practice building out back. The
classroom building is a grim concrete building with sleek glass doors, three
stories tall, with classrooms for the third years on the ground floor, second
years on the second, and first years on the top. The faculty office is on the
second, and the student council room and the library on the third. Vending
machines dot the hallways here and there, and the bathrooms are kept clean. Its
front gates are wrought iron with a circular design, and a stylized clock on the
eastern wall informs students just how late they are.
The foyer is lined with glass cases proudly displaying trophies earned by its
top students, and just past them is the school store, though the yakisoba bread
there is almost always sold out. Billboards across the school announce various
articles and notices of interest. Past there, the walls are gray and white, the
floors are wooden, student lockers line the walls, and the sliding classroom
doors sport diamond windows. The classrooms themselves are rather more sober,
with simple desks and chairs for the students and a taller desk at front before
the chalkboard for the teacher. The windows to the outside seem simple, and even
have yellow curtains that can be pulled shut, but are lined in a diamond pattern
to prevent shattering. We wouldn't want our students to escape, now would we?
There is a fenced-in roof, but the door to it displays a sign stating students
aren't allowed. Despite this, it isn't locked, so nothing stops anyone from
hanging out there anyway--at least, not until they get caught. Oddly, there's
also several small planters there too for growing flowers and vegetables.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
It has been.... well, a strange month for Kazusa, but also definitely a strange week, too. Her presence in Shujin has been strange, too. No longer the bright but shallow girl she was for the last month and change, but also not the same as she was before thatt happened.
Oh, she's definitely still a bit short (temperament), and snapping at people, full of withering stares... but most of it seems to be defensive rather than... let's say proactive, if we're being charitable.
(Kazusa does not think she deserves 'charitable.')
It has been a week full of reflection, but more importantly a steady studying pace for finals.
Saturday is only a half day--as soon as it's over she's going to split for her study for an all-day cram session.
But right now it is morning, and classes haven't started yet. Kazusa left the house early, claiming she'd be meeting a friend, but really it was to just et out of the presence of her parents. She's seated on a bench under a tree, in a crisp winter uniform. The pink hair band is gone, and she's wearing several bracelets on each wrist, with dark tights to ward off the chill.
And this time she's actually managing to study, with a notebook in her lap, an open textbook on the bench on her left, and an open canned coffee on her right.
She's taking sharp, detailed notes with neat handwriting, and she's positioned herself in the middle of the bench, as usual, to make it maximally awkward for anyone else to sit on either side of the bench around all her stuff.
Her gaze is sharp as she reads and writes. She does not want to be disturbed.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuko Yoshinaga has posed.
Some part of Katsuko bemoaned that she her identity was obscured by her power. It would have made checking up on Kazusa a far simpler deal. Perhaps she'd be grateful enough to talk, perhaps they'd be able to bond over the phenomena she was now a part of - there were any number of routes available to people that knew of each other's struggles. Alas, the mask had to stay on, and distance had to be maintained. Operational security was paramount, and she had no intention of breaking it for anyone, let alone Kazusa.
Yet, Katsuko nevertheless felt compelled to check up on Kazusa, if only to see whether nor not the investment of her effort into saving the girl would pay off in any way. She'd intended for it to happen at a more opportune time, in a more opportune place - but fate seemed to determined to have them meet earlier, and so Katsuko sighted Kazusa beneath the same tree she and the Homunculus had talked beneath all those days ago. Time slowed to a crawl, and Katsuko dragged her eyes over the scene, analysing whatever clues she could make out on that chilly autumn morn.
The combined efforts of multiple Persona users seemed to have worked, she noted. There had been a change to her fashion, and rumours circulating throughout the student body had her inclined to believe that her temperament had changed as well. She was almost relieved to see that look on Kazusa's face. Almost. There was no avoiding the fact that approaching would be a risk, however, and she needed a further moment to decide whether or not to wait. Katsuko, though normally a patient and methodical woman, was only human. And impatience was a very human trait.
"Motojima-san." She said, drawing just close enough that she did not have to raise her voice, but not so close that - she hoped - she did not encroach upon Kazusa's personal space. "Are you well today?" An innocuous enough question on its own, if worded a little awkwardly, but Katsuko had fought the Homunculus. The question, as it happened, was a little more loaded than it might otherwise have been.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Alas, but Kazusa has no idea that this particular senpai of hers was involved in her rescue. (Or does she have any idea that she was prsent at the con, or harbors some similar interests to her own.)
Her fashion is her old fashion, silver bracelets and pink nail polish. Just enough to look stylish without completely flaunting the dress code. The perks of status and wealth. (Even if she hates aspect of both of those things, now.)
Kazusa did not lift her head as Katsuko apprached, though her gaze flicked upwards to look at the other girl, for just a moment. "... Yoshinaga-senpai." The look she gives the elder student is a lot sharper, a lot more clinical than the wide-eyed, often slightly-clueless gaze of her Homunculus.
She looks down, flipping to the next page in her textbok as she sketches down a diagram from it. "I'm fine." She's not, and there's ways to challenge that that don't involve revealing a masked identity. "Is there something I can do for you, senpai?"
It's a bit curt, but still some semblance of polite. But after a moment she pauses and sits upright, looking at Katsuko again more directly.
"... actually, I'm busy studying for midterms. So if there's something you want from me, please just get to the point."
She said please but it still came out kind of bossy... on the other hand, she's at least dispensed with dancing around the topic. Maybe that's its own kind of progress?
<Pose Tracker> Katsuko Yoshinaga has posed.
Katsuko considered her options, in the few moments of silence that were allowed before it turned from 'lull' to 'awkward pause. There was always the option of trying to play the subtle game. She could pretend she knew nothing of the world beyond. She could pretend to have been like the rest of the student body, simply perplexed at what Kazusa had been doing while something had piloted her skin. She could have said and done so many things, and she felt no guilt over telling a bare-faced lie. But another thought occurred to her.
She thought of the Atelier, and of the things that had been revealed there. She considered what trials Kazusa must have faced, how her will to express herself had been stifled, the things her father might have said to her in private if he was willing to act in such a way in front of gathered crowds... And, despite herself, Katsuko felt something that, under the right conditions, might have resembled something approaching a will to reach out. It was pity, she told herself, and quashed any thoughts to the contrary, before moving on and speaking.
"No. I don't want anything from you."
Katsuko's expression did not change, and her voice remained as level as ever. But, for those willing to look closely, there was a frankness to her. A slight insistence to her voice, a firmer look to her eyes... She had, in that moment at least, told the unembellished truth. "For want of a better word, you had been acting strangely. It was concerning." That truth was embellished, though. Not that she thought to let Kazusa know. The fact that it would have been immensely unwise aside, Katsuko was distracted by how telling the truth felt.
It was a sickening experience. Doubly so when it was with Kazusa. Yet, she persisted.
"So I wanted to ask if you were feeling well."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
As Katsuko deliberates, Kazusa is watching her. Her pencil is tapping on her notebook, a quiet, implied ticking clock, a mark of her impatience. She is replaying their past interactions--including the one Katsuko had with her Homunculus, though that conversation takes a moment to dredge up from the depths of her memories.
She is already skeptical, but at least gave Katsuko a clear opening to speak her mind this time.
'No. I don't want anything from you."'
The pencil pauses. Kazusa blinks. That... was not a response she expected. But she stays silent, and sharpens her stare a moment later. She doesn't say it, but the implication is 'Then get to a point.' There's truth there...but Kazusa is still suspicious of the intent.
Acting strangely... yeah, that's an understatement. Kazusa drops her eyeline back to her notebook. It's a little easier to discuss this with those she knows who know the truth--and those who helped rescue her, in particular, and already saw her at her lowest.
The topic of feeling well almost wants to make her laugh in disdain. She hasn't felt well in a long, long time.
"I'm fine," she lies, resuming her copying of the diagram. She almost wants to just let things end there, to stop talking and let Katsuko back off and walk away, but after a few moments she stops and looks up again. "... you really didn't want anything from me?"
<Pose Tracker> Katsuko Yoshinaga has posed.
Katsuko was a glacier. Stock-still and bearing an expression befitting a coldhearted ice queen, there was little that could be discerned from how she acted. However, her gaze fell squarely upon Kazusa, drifting only to glance at her notes, and then again to her possessions. Her focus was, to those who cared to examine her manner, quite clearly on the one person, and on examining every detail about her. She wasn't close enough to read the notes, and had little intention of doing so anyway, but she could see the sharpness of Kazusa's handwriting, and of the diagram displayed before her.
She was tempted to simply back off. To not push her luck, and to wash the bitter taste of honesty from her tongue. But she remained, waiting to see if there was anything more to the conversation, and Kazusa spoke once more. Katsuko, uncharacteristically, did not try to demand anything, or worm extra information from Kazusa's grasp. Instead, she simply shook her head, and resumed staring ahead like an automaton locked in place.
"No." She said bluntly, deciding that the most direct answer was probably the best. It was true in the moment, at least. She had no doubt she would feel compelled to scheme again, but for moment, she frank - in other words, as close to honest as she dared to get.
"I understand we're not friends." Katsuko said. Putting it so bluntly was distasteful, on both a personal and cultural level, but the moment called for honesty, in her opinion. The scheming and manipulation could come at a more opportune time. "But you changed so suddenly that I could not help but be concerned. And when we talked here, you didn't seem quite alright. So I was concerned." There was the supernatural factor, but Katsuko decided to play that one close to her chest.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Whereas Katsuko is an ice queen, cold, aloof, and impassive... Kazusa is decidedly less so. She might not be in full Demon Queen mode, but although she holds herself still, acting aloof and dismissive, even from her seated position... she has many more tells that speak to agitation and irritation. She's more like a coiled spring, one barely holding herself back at times.
There are a lot of things she's still trying to grapple with, under the surface.
But Katsuko doubles down on that simple anwer. No, she doesn't want anything. Kazusa gives her a long, hard look. It might've been simpler, if she'd walked away, but she hasn't been.
Kazusa snorts quietly, as if disbelieving, but slips her pencil into her notebook as a placeholder and closes it with a firm snap before setting it down on top of her notebook and crossing her arms.
Katsuko has her full attention now. Heavens help her.
They're not friends, it's true. And she remembers... some parts of that conversation, anyway. The Homunculus version of her had been so open, and trusting... it made Kazusa sick.
Unfolding her arms to reach out to her canned coffee, Kazusa takes a sip as she mulls her own reply. "Yeah, well. I wasn't exactly feeling myself. And now I am. So... there's no reason to be concerned anymore."
It might sound a little dismissive, but... Kazusa feels like her hands are tied. What could she possibly say to someone she doesn't think is aware of the supernatural in anything more than broad, sensationalized news reports?
(Speaking of those news reports, there are a lot of hings she might need to reconsider at a later date, but... she absolutely does not have the spoons for that with midterms incoming.)
"... must just be one of those strange things you hear about in the news, like a Psychotic Breakdown, or a Change of Heart." Internally Kazusa is hoping Katsuko will accept this fig leaf of an answer and not press things too much further.
Kazusa also isn't used to others showing genuine concern for her, and is struggling with how to react to it.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuko Yoshinaga has posed.
Katsuko's eyes shifted, moving slowly from point to point. To anyone else, it would seems as though she was simply examining the area. Taking in the sights, and gaining a better understanding of the situation. In truth, her eyes scanned over Kazusa, looking for any tells or twitches that might have helped her understand how better to interact. Every blink, every press of her finger, even the rhythm of her breath - Katsuko did not *feel* what the best way to continue was, but had to put conscious, constant, effort into it.
So it was that, when it finally came time for her to speak, Katsuko decided that she had pushed her luck as far as it would go. They weren't friends, and she did not imagine that would change in the foreseeable future. But they were, at least, able to maintain a cordial conversation, and that had to count for something. That aside, the idea of continued honesty and displaying genuine concern left Katsuko with a pit in her stomach, and an uncomfortable itch at the back of her mind. She did not care for it, and preferred to have it stop as soon as possible.
Katsuko nodded slowly in acknowledgement and acceptance. She knew the truth, of course, but there was a time and a place to reveal such things.
"I see. Whatever it was, it's good to see it's passed." She said. Her voice was flat as a frozen lake, and tinged with cold as well. Whatever tells she might have had were suppressed, drowned beneath a layer of ice, and obscured from view. Perhaps that, in and of itself, spoke to the kind of person she was. When she spoke again, she kept that same tone - but the volume of her voice dropped, until only the two of them could hear, and even the slightest breeze could drown Katsuko out.
"I hope it hasn't impeded any of your projects. You've worked too hard on them for something like this to ruin it."
Something unfamiliar crept into Katsuko's eyes. Only a hint of it, and only for a moment, but it was there - a brief spark in the stillness of her expression.
Understanding.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Katsuko and Kazusa may not realize it, but they do have something in common: they both struggle with vulnerability and being open and honest about their feelings. (Though only one of them has magically-manifested wolf ears that will betray their emotions.)
What the close scan will reveal isn't terribly surprising. Impatience, on the surface level. But there is some discomfort buried beneath it, as well. She mostly wants to get this interaction done with as soon as possible--if not to stop dealing with Katsuko, then to get back to her studies.
Good to see that it's passed. "Mm. Yes, well... of course it did. I've far too much to do to remain indisposed." It's a little bit of defensive bluster, but a toned down version of something she might have said a month and a half ago.
'I hope it hasn't impeded any of your projects.'
Kazusa freezes, eyes widening a little in surprise once again as Katsuko said that. Her canned coffee is halfway to her lips. There are several thoughts warring on her expression as she studies Katsuko: defensiveness, recognition and validation, some lingering traces of shame despite the change despite the desire she had expressed in that Cocoon.
Well, a lot more than a few lingering traces, to be fair.
She manages one, shakey syllable before she clams up. "I--"
Suddenly she schools her face, studying Katsuko with a sharp gaze. She doesn't recognize Katsuko from the Atelier, of course, because of her identity protection. Katsuko could have gone to her studio--it's not like her brother collected all of the names of the visitors, but... Why would she even e there to begn with?
So if not one of those two places...
Kazusa stills, and then finishes that sip of coffee. She's had her legs crossed at the knee this entire time, and she maintains that pose as she sips, then lowers the can to rest it in her lap.
She looks Katsuko right in the eye. "... were you at the convention?"
<Pose Tracker> Katsuko Yoshinaga has posed.
Katsuko, perhaps, has the complete opposite problem with her supernatural form - a severely stunted ability to emote. What parts of her face were not obscured by a light-swallowing void were covered instead by the glinting grin of a skull's lower half, turning her more into a grim shadow than a person. Such a thing was not at the forefront of her mind when she observed Kazusa, however. Instead, she sought to make note of the full range of emotion Kazusa displayed, while suppressing all of her own. Even that scrap of understanding - something that veered dangerously close to compassion - was stamped out, and ground beneath the heel of impassivity.
Her efforts were redoubled when Kazusa spoke of the con, and of Katsuko's attendance there. Her lips tightened some fraction of an infinitesimally small amount, and she displayed the closest thing to consternation she dared. She could deny she was at the con - she was certain there were a great many lies and excuses she could make. Perhaps she could have evaded the question entirely, and hoped that the remark was brushed aside. But something whispered, in the deepest reaches of her mind. Something insidious. Something that nudged her towards one singular course of action, despite how it felt as though she was being shoved towards a cliff's edge.
It told her to speak the truth.
"I was." Katsuko said. It felt like tearing a piece of shrapnel from her flesh so that it could be operated upon. Being genuine... it was an excruciatingly painful thing, and the twitch of her lips spoke to that. "I appreciate art in all its forms. It doesn't matter if it's attached to a game or a movie. Your passion and skill were clear to see." She hoped, against all hope, that the fact she'd not even attempted to intervene when her father became enraged did not come up. It was a point of shame for her.
She knew there was no chance she would have been able to curry favour with such a man no matter how quiet she kept, after all, but hindsight was always 20/20.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Maybe it comes down to the difference in the intent each Awakening takes--one that hides your identity, and one that forces your true self to be put on display for the whole world to see.
It's too late, Katsuko. Kazusa is watching you like a hawk (like a wolf?) now, looking for anything that might betray you. This is, after all, a moment that is... well, of great emotional weight to her. It is not something she wants to tread with lightly.
Still, that sense of control that comes so instinctively is hard to deny here--it's a defense mechanism, if nothing else. She's spent so long trying to protect herself from her father, that it's hard to let her guard down for others.
'I was.'
There is a brief smirk, a gleam in her eyes, like she's found a juicy piece of gossip she's about to lord over Katsuko's head. But then a moment she is chagrined, glancing off to the side as she stews with her thoughts. She won't call out Katsuko for not stepping forward--there were a lot of people in that crowd that didn't, and trying to indict every single last one of them...
It would require a level of energy that, frankly, she just doesn't have. Not to mention that she has other priorities now.
Time to just awkwardly step around the subject.
She sighs. "Not a lot of people would consider it art..." She looks to Katsuko again. "... I'm not going to tell anyone, I just... needed to know how you knew. About my projects."
She suddenly looks a lot more tired than she did even a few minutes ago.
<Pose Tracker> Katsuko Yoshinaga has posed.
The smirk did not go unnoticed. Kazusa was not the only one watching with sharp and attentive eyes - Katsuko was as much a hawk as she. A hundred different explanations flashed into her mind, followed by a hundred different ways to avoid the issue in its entirety. To say she was at the con was undesirable, but not immediately damning - in the grand scheme of things, Shujin students learning that she had asked an actor for their autograph was barely worth thinking about. Them learning that she had multiple display cases of handpainted miniatures, gunpla, and other such things? That was a little more damning.
She counted herself fortunate, then, that the conversation moved past it, and she was able to speak of something else. Kazusa's exhaustion was noted, of course, but not given any great degree of compassion. It was merely another factor to take into account, so that she did not strain their tentatively cordial relationship.
"I won't tell anyone about your projects." Again, she made another blunt statement. Again, she told the truth, cut down to as few parts as she could. It was, in its own way, reassurance - it was just a clear statement of intent, free of any attempts to worm her way into Kazusa's good graces, or use the knowledge against her. As if to emphasise the point, she followed it with another blunt truth. "And regardless of what others consider it to be, you do good work. It would be a shame to see it stop."
Katsuko made a mental note to examine how much empathy she'd been feeling recently. It was a curious thing, and distasteful as well. Not something she cared for at all.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
The world in which Shujin students find out about Katsuko's particular hobby is, thankfully, one that will not be visited today. At least, not by any action of Kazusa's doing.
Katsuko, at least, may be able to recognize better why Kazusa is so exhausted: she spent a month in a supernatural space, after all. That kind of thing can be tiring even under the best of circumstances, and Kazusa's were... very far from ideal, to put it mildly.
She takes another sip of that coffee, hoping the drink will revitalize her and wake her up some more.
Katsuko promises not to tell, and Kazusa grapples with a strange mixture of feelings about that. The Demon Queen part of her finds it disdainful to have to rely on others like this, the recently released Princess side of her, however, is mostly released. "Hmph. Thanks." She doesn't meet KAtsuko's eyes as she says that.
She sets the can down and picks up the notebook again, setting it in her lap. "... the credit goes to Waka-chan. She put the outfits together." Saying that makes her more tired, as it makes her think of her currently-estranged friend.
"I need to get back to studying. If you decide later you want something from me..." She glances up. "... ask me after midterms. But make sure you get to the point when you do."
<Pose Tracker> Katsuko Yoshinaga has posed.
A slight pang of embarrassment flickered through Katsuko at Kazusa's closing remarks, and she admitted - quietly, to herself - that perhaps Kazusa was right. Perhaps a more direct approach would resolve things quicker, and help her towards her own goal when the time was right. But Kazusa made another point - midterms were in session, and demanded everybody's attention. It was a pain, but they had to be seen to before any progress was made, and she supposed that Kazusa might have needed the rest as well. She did not know how it felt to be trapped in such a state, but Katsuko did not imagine it was pleasant.
"Indeed." She said, agree curtly before giving slow nod to excuse herself. "Then I'd best get on with mine too. There is something I'll ask you to do for me before all that, though. Get some rest, when you can. I think you might need it."
With her piece said, Katsuko turned, and took her leave.