2026-04-12: Baby Baby Baby Baby
- Log: Baby Baby Baby Baby
- Cast: Yua Ijuuin, Maya Amano
- Where: Seven Sisters High School
- OOC Date: 2026-04-12
- IC Date: Wed, Oct 24 2012
- Summary: Maya and Yua have a chat after school, talking about Maya's upcoming article about the Joker Killer -- and more importantly, Yua's upcoming baby!!!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Midterms are finally over, and that means...! Dance class is back on. After dance class -- it takes up a slot of PE, at some point during the week, though the days on which it runs can sometimes be a little inconsistent to keep students on their toes and attending more regularly to try and catch them -- one of Yua's students is kidnapped for an interview!
(And since Maya obviously went through all the checks and balances of visiting a high school as an adult, with a visitor tag and everything, Yua let her steal them.)
She gets a great scope on Newspaper Club -- where, apparently, the dance teacher's little sister is treasurer, though Yume Ooshiro has a different last name by now -- and some more insight into Yua's little academic project, how any student can volunteer but it's the students who are struggling with engaging with school who are approached to sign up for it. The class runs in a melded fashion, so that students from first, second, and third year mix together, because it's just one class and one teacher. And... apparently she used to clean up the gym herself, but she's having a baby soon, so the students have been taking care of things like they usually do since they realised that.
Which means that Yua is free to roam -- and which also means...!
"Oh, hello!" Yua chirps, as she looks into the empty classroom they've repurposed for the interview, seeing her student leaving after the interview ends. "How did it go, Amano-senpai...?"
Because, of course, it wasn't so many years prior that Yua and Maya were being educated in these halls themselves... and Maya was giving Yua's bullies the business as a third-year student who totally wasn't gonna put up with all that homophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Great! I'm just wrapping up!" Maya says with a wink. Maya is as energetic and cheerful as always, but the same couldn't be said for all of the students. While some were pleased with their exam results, there was plenty of groaning from students whose names were closer to the bottom of the ranking than the top.
"You had classes today?" Maya isn't entirely sure of how Yua's schedule works, since she does her classes at more than one school. That was one thing that set Yua aside from the other teachers Maya's acquainted herself with over the years. She can't recall any of them doing something similar!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Mm, mm!" Yua hums, as she steps inside to steal one of the seats. (And with the little sigh that follows, it doesn't take a genius reporter to realise that the pregnant lady was tired of standing up.) "I'm at Sevens today! It's funny, everywhere else, I got lost for the longest time... but here, I didn't have to worry!"
Yua, of course, has her own reasons for sitting down with Maya; some of them are innocent. She was a friend to her back then, after all, even if it was with all the distance of senpai-hood. Just focusing on that, it's really quite nice...
"How have things been?" She asks, smiling. "There's been an awful lot of fuss lately... I saw on the news how that Aerospace museum burnt down!" She did not see it on the news. "It's all been quite ghastly... but I'm sure November will be calmer!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya nods in agreement. "I spent last week working on my article on the Joker Killer." After the incident at the Aerospace Museum, _everything_ felt calmer by comparison. With the Joker case closed, Maya no longer had Editor-in-Chief Mizuno breathing down her neck. Of course, Maya had to do a lot of creative editing for her article on the Joker Killer -- but she had plenty of time to work on that while her teenage readership was focused on their midterms.
(It hasn't been published yet, but coming soon to a bookstore near you!)
"But now that midterms are over, it's back to more interviews!" Maya likes doing these a lot, so she's not especially pressed about going back to the status quo. "Looks like you're back to your normal work schedule, too!" But for how long? "When are you due?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Oh, you mean how there were a bunch of people who were the Joker Killer...?" Yua asks, tilting her head, when she hears about the Joker Killer article Maya's writing. "That is quite frightening..."
(She knows it's a lie, but it's the lie Chizuru's put out into the world; the least she can do is underline it.)
"Ah, you're busy, busy!" Yua laughs, her fingers veiling her painted lips. (No nailpolish; she heard that it could be bad for the baby.) "You're quite right, I'm keeping busy, myself... I've just gotten to seventeen weeks! Next week, we'll know for sure that Hiroki's a boy!" And she almost bubbles with excitement. "And it means I'm almost halfway through...! They think I'll deliver in March or April, if I make it to full term... and I'm gonna try my hardest!!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"You'll just have to read my article when it comes out!" Maya says, tapping a finger against her cheek. "I'll make sure to bring you a copy once it's out!" It might be a little too late to make the cut for the November issue, but definitely the December one!
"You'll have to let me know what you find out!" It would be shocking if Hiroki turned out to be a girl, given how Yua seemed convinced they were having a boy. "I hope you plan on taking some time off before you have the baby." Thankfully, Japan did mandate maternity leave -- 6 weeks before birth and 7 weeks afterwards -- so Yua definitely could take the time if she wanted to.
"You could take that time to work on the nursery. Unless..." Maya looks at Yua, wide-eyed with excitement. "...you've already started on it?"
Pics, please!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I'm sure it'll be amazing!" Yua encourages her, brightly. "Maybe you can interview some of those people with Kegare all built up in their souls...? I bet you could even speak to my husband, Kimitake, he's a police officer!"
She feels a little bad trying to cast aspersions on Maya's story, but...
... well, that's her job, too. To be the unwitting public, who already believe another story. To make it seem more likely that Maya needs to play nice with that fake story to even get people to entertain her version of events...
It's not a very nice thing to do.
Yua's much happier focusing on -- baby!!
"I will! I will!" Yua bubbles, excitedly. "We got a blood test, but when we can see on the ultrasound, we'll be ultra-sure...!" She laughs, pressing a hand to her cheek. "But Mimi will definitely make sure I take my time off," she assures her. "Just, for now, I don't want to lie in bed all day...! That would be bad for the baby, anyway! My blood will get lazy." She's talking about blood clots. Man, Yua, you're still supposed to be a Health and Physical Education teacher...
But Maya's excitement is infectious, and Yua all but sparkles, as she says: "I sooo have!" She pulls out her phone, to show photographs of a room with furniture removed from it, halfway through being painted baby blue. "I want to have some nice things painted on the walls," she says, "but I'm not sure what... and I'm bad at painting! Even the walls... I thought I could do it, but there were fumes and stuff, and the paint kept being not even and it was so frustrating! So Mimi's getting people in to do it now."
If only she knew an artist...
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Was she able to find someone?" Maya asks, wracking her brain for any painters that she might know. She's met a few teenage art prodigies, but not anyone who would take something on this scale. "If not, I can ask around. In my business, there's always someone who knows someone!" ...who knows someone who knows someone!
"But you still have to figure out what you want on the wall, though!" Is it time for a brainstorming session?! It might be! "Book characters? A landscape?" Maya rubs the rim of her ear as she thinks. "Ooh! Animals!"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"We got people to paint the walls blue," Yua says, in her excitement, "but we haven't found anyone whose art we like to put up once they're blueified! See, see, I want my baby to have a nice seashore room! Like, like --"
She scrolls on her phone, pulling up some more photos... of a coastline and a rural town! (Albeit one which seems quite touristy...) "This is my home," she explains, as she flicks through photos, showing off seagulls and fish in shallow water and rocky shores and beautiful sandy beaches. "Kukojima Island! Mimi's work is in Tokyo, so we can't leave the city to raise him... but I want him to be able to see it in his room!"
Scroll, scroll, and she shows Maya a glorious crab. "Like Mr. Pinchy!" She declares, having apparently named him.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Mr. Pinchy!" Maya exclaims in delight, snapping her fingers together like a crab's claws. "I love it! And he'll recognize home when he gets there, too!"
It's perfect!
"Do you have a registry yet?" If not, Maya'll have to go digging around for some seaside-themed baby items. She's sure she can con Ulala into going shopping with her!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Mm, mm! That's exactly it!" Yua nods, and thanks to Maya's excitement, she's getting super into it, too... they're a positive feedback loop. "We went to Ebisu Beach yesterday, too... I was avoiding it for a while, but it's the closest beach in Sumaru, you know? So I want to bring him there a lot! I want him to learn how nice warm sand is!"
Even if city beaches are more polluted and crowded than the ones back home...
"We started one!" Yua declares, tapping away at her phone. "It's not done, yet, though, I keep thinking of other stuff we'll need... I'll give you the link! Oh, but some of those things kind of assume you've got too much money," she realises, as she scrolls though that registry. (How many yen does that stroller cost?) "So... just between you and me, the normal versions of a lot of this stuff will do just fine!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya nods enthusiastically. "In that case, Ulala and I might go in for a gift together!" Maya'd rather get Yua something she _really_ wanted for the baby, and two incomes made that easier than just one!
"Oh, I saw this ad for baby swimming classes," she says. "Have you thought about enrolling him?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Then... I'll show you this!" Yua pulls up a page of stretchy wraps, on her phone, with beautiful designs. "These wraps are stretchy, so you can use them for newborns... they say that onbuhimo aren't good for newborns, so I want to get something I can use right away!" Onbuhimo -- 'carried tied to the back' -- is the traditional way to carry babies in Japan. "I'd really like one of these!!"
Conveniently, those stretchy wraps are also more around the 20000 yen range than the 200000 range of some of those other items on her list. Seriously, HOW much do prams cost?!
"Ah! Baby swimming classes!" Yua chirps, brightly, brightening up even further when Maya invokes WATER. "Yup, yup! We have a pool, so we can make sure he has a lot of early exposure to water... oh, but that's a good idea! We should get a kiddy pool for him to start out in! Let me take that down right now!" Yua tap tap taps away on her phone. "Luckily, my work only starts around lunchtime, since my classes are in the afternoon... so I'll be able to take him to swimming classes in the morning real easily!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Those are so pretty!" Maya says, gushing over the images on the phone. "I didn't realize that there's so much I didn't know about baby care."
That was never really a priority in Maya's life. For now, at least, her job came first. Once she felt like she had a strong feel for it, she wanted to balance both family and her work. If anyone was determined to make it work, it was Maya Amano.
"I think I want to have a kid someday." Maybe even more than one? "But I guess I need to work on finding a partner first." Maya scratches her cheek with a sheepish smile.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Mm, mm!" Yua hums, in cheerful affirmation. "Onbuhimos need babies to be able to sit up with support, so you usually only start using them around six months... sometimes earlier, if you tie them right! And if you want to carry them on your chest, you'll want a different type... maybe a meh dai, the Chinese style! I'm thinking of getting ones of those to transition from newborn to him getting bigger... besides, I know it's not traditional, but I kind of like the idea of holding him in front!"
She grows serious, as she adds: "Babies are very fragile. If you don't hold them right, or support them right, they could suffocate! Or, or get hurt other ways! Even if they get shaken, they can be hurt really badly... it's a lot to worry about! Luckily, no one in my life is anyone who would shake a baby..."
(Well, she thinks that's true.)
But when Maya shares her thoughts about children, Yua leans forward. "It's a really good feeling!" She encourages her, smiling. "Sometimes it can be very hard... but it's usually not as hard as it is for me. If you ask your mama, you'll learn a lot about what you can expect, too! Since that stuff passes from mother to daughter. But you definitely want a partner first," she adds, nodding firmly. "I don't know what I'd do without Mimi... and Kimi-san's supporting me, too! It would be much, much too hard to do this on my own... that's why everyone says it's bad to do it as a single mother." Well, that's one charitable reading of the conservative logic, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya nods at Yua's explanation. Her interest is genuine. Even though this isn't something she can necessarily use for Coolest, her own curiosity about the world and other people helped her to eke out ideas for articles that other journalists couldn't have even conjured in their dreams. Sure, there were some teen moms out there that might be excited to see this kind of article in Coolest, but it'd be a hard sell for Editor-in-Chief Mizuno, who had already been fuming about some of Maya's more progressive articles. She could imagine it now -- "You're corrupting the country's youth yet again by encouraging teen pregnancy!"
Maya sighed inwardly at the thought of it. They had published all kinds of articles about different professions out there, highlighting up-and-coming authors, mangaka, and newscasters. They even had an interview with an architect! All this in the name of educating the youth on these topics and giving them the opportunity to explore the possibility this might be something they'd be interested in when they were older. Why the adults in the world couldn't see parenthood as a similar feature frustrated Maya.
Maya brushes those thoughts aside for the moment -- there are far happier topics to focus on!
"So did you chat with your mother?" It sounds like Yua speaks from experience!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Yua, herself, would prefer not to encourage teen pregnancy... but that doesn't mean she hasn't given some momly advice and support to teenagers. There's nothing wrong with curiosity, right? And if they have that information, they might make better choices...!
Well, that's Yua's logic, anyway.
She smiles, when Maya asks after her mother. "Mmhm! All the time, actually! Hee hee, it's usually the wife's job to keep up with the family, but since Mimi's got a big important job as an executive, I'm the wife that does that! I call mama, and haha-ue, and ane-ue, and ani-ue fujin," her mother and big sister and big brother's wife, though those are remarkably old-fashioned ways to refer to them -- the way samurai used to address their families, so one presumes those are her in-laws. "And dad, since mama and dad don't live together right now... oh, and Yume-chan, though she's always embarrassed about it!" Yua giggles.
"Mama isn't well right now," she adds, growing a touch more serious. "So she moved back home, and she's getting support in her community... but she was able to give me a lot of good advice about Hiroki," her smile returns, as she focuses on him again. "Like how I'd have my hypernemesis gravitas --" she's talking about hyperemesis gravidarum, and of course she realises after she says it that it's deeply impolite to actually discuss one's ill health during pregnancy, her hand flying to her mouth. "Oh, excuse me!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
If Maya is at all made uncomfortable by health talk, it doesn't register on her face. "Hypernemesis gravitas?" she repeats questioningly. It's not a term she's heard before!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Er..." Yua's a touch taken aback by the curiosity, and also by having to remember what the actual word is. "It's, umm... hyper-em-es-is gra-vida-rum," she sounds it out, after a pause which is very blatantly her looking it up on her phone. "It means that you get morning sickness the most. Um, like, you lose weight, and can't eat anything, and maybe can't drink anything either... but I'm really hoping it will go away by next month. They say that it sometimes goes away by week twenty, but if it doesn't, it usually lasts the whole way through..."
Yua sighs, with a great pout. "It's not very fun," she admits, because if she's going to be rude she may as well be honest. "I used to really love food, but now I'm scared of eating... and the things I can eat, they're all very bland and boring!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya claps her hands together. "That means when you're feeling better, you need to treat yourself! We should all go to the Wilton Hotel Buffet!"
Who is 'we'? Well, whoever they wanted to invite! A celebration was better with more people, right?
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Ha ha... I guess it will get better after I have Hiroki!" Yua decides, laughing off her pouting. "Okay, it's a deal! We'll go to the Wilton Hotel Buffet, Amano-senpai! Wow, I bet it'll be Hiroki's first buffet, too..."
Of course she has to bring baby. Yua has already determined in her mind that she needs to care for him as much as possible!!
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Whoo-hoo!" Maya gives a fist pump. She's always ready for an excuse to eat good food and if there was any time that seemed suitable, it was the birth of a child. "You get me a list of email addresses and I'll send out the invites!"
Not that there was any urgent need to get that moving _now_. After all, the baby wasn't even close to being born yet!
"We'll make sure Hiroki-kun's first buffet is a good one!"