2026-06-13: I'm Looking Forward to It
- Log: 2026-06-13: I'm Looking Forward to It
- Cast: Yuuki Hoshizora, Misato Fushihara
- Where: Renegdai, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: June 13, 2026
- IC Date: November 24, 2012
- Summary: Yuuki is saved by a mysterious masked Persona User named Magus during Dark Hour. They talk about motivations -- and reach an agreement to meet again in the future. And Misato learns something new about this mysterious transfer student.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Dark Hour.
Yuuki Hoshizora knows it well. She heard about it when she was eleven; she experienced it several months ago, and was hurt by an attacking Shadow -- before her parents intervened. That makes her simultaneously cautious and eager. The fear of this liminal hour runs deep; she can sometimes feel the sheer weight of the Maya slamming into her, still, before she had any defense.
But, as the sickly green light dances off her rapier, she also feels a certain thrill in being able to fight the Shadows. She surges forward, quickly, and her sword slashes through a large Maya. It explodes apart into so much shadowstuff.
She looks different, but she is recognizable. A snug-fitting black top, bearing her midriff, with silver embroidery; a skirt; a flowing cape, attached to one shoulder. Boots and gloves, suited for a fight. Her sword, of course. And her teal hair is now a bright blue, with a sheen -- the product of Transmutation.
"Last one," she says, whirling on a larger, taller Shadow. It tilts its masked head. She holds a hand up; behind her, Galileo -- a clockwork construction with four gem orbs -- takes shape. Gravity begins to compress about the Shadow. But then it moves, unexpected, and shoots out a long limb. The Gry spell is broken, as the spear-arm slashes Yuuki's bare upper left arm, sending a splatter of blue onto the ground.
She hisses with pain, but then her eyes widen. The Shadow lifts its other arm, which forms into a point.
She makes a terrified gasp, as the lance-like arm shoots towards her.
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
The Dark Hour.
The air is filled with a pervading aura of dread, like something inescapable hanging over you. It's tiring just to exist in this hour... but that dread helps make Misato feel alive. The Dark Hour is what it is - for it and the Shadows that blot into existence, there is no pretending, no hiding. It's almost refreshing.
And, more importantly, it gives her some free time to herself - she can get in and out of the house without risk of discovery. She doesn't mind sneaking out, but it gives her some peace of mind. That freedom is valuable.
Tonight, she stalks the green-lit streets as Magus - her dark purple hooded cloak obscuring her form, though the gold accenting stands out. Underneath it she wears a black button-up shirt with gold trim matching the cloak, alongside a pair of long, loose-fitting black pants and boots. A featureless porcelain mask conceals the top half of her face.
Usually, these walks are uneventful - she might encounter the occasional Shadow or have a run-in with a demon, but it's an easy enough distraction.
Tonight, though. Tonight she hears the sound of combat. The Shadows are restless. Some poor soul has drawn their attention. She isn't heartless - the moment she hears it, she diverts her course and picks up the pace. Soon enough, the sight of the battle comes into view.
Her eyes are drawn almost immediately to the girl. She can't help it. That bright, vibrant stands out against the dreary, washed-out green around her - she practically shines like a beacon against the night sky.
She finds herself curious, but the moment Yuuki finds herself on the back foot -
The cloaked figure rushes in. From within the depths of the cloak her parrying dagger is drawn from its sheath, raised to intercept that lance-like arm.
"Careful. Don't get overconfident just because there's only one left." Magus comments. As she struggles to hold the arm back with her parrying dagger, her free hand rises to her mask.
"Crush it, Nitocris." Magus calls. Behind her, a spectre appears - a woman of regal bearing in Egyptian royal garb. She waves a hand dismissively, and a wave of water surges forth toward the Shadow.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
The Shadow's spear-arm slashes along the dagger, sparks flying -- that blade is sharp, and it's like metal meets metal. Yuuki stares, with wide eyes, and it takes her mind a second to catch up to everything happening. She glances at her masked savior, her lips curving into a frown at her words.
"I wasn't--" Yuuki's protest is quick, almost snapped. It's different than the girl who she met; she has something to prove here. But Magus is quick to intervene offensively, too. She sucks in a sharp breath. After water goes flying at the Shadow, Yuuki cries out: "Galileo!"
The clockwork Persona takes form once more. The clockwork rings spin and turn, on their intricate gears. One of the gem spheres flashes; then, Yuuki shoots forward, gravity propelling her at the Shadow. The water strikes it, throwing it off balance. A moment later, she shoots past it, spins, and runs it through from behind.
Yuuki's feet skid to a stop as it bursts apart into another blast of shadowstuff. Yuuki's eyes -- and they're the same eyes that met Misato's before, just a bright green now -- look at the mask, trying to peer past to the eyes behind them. She hesitates for a second.
"...I-I had it," she says, with a look to the side. "But... thanks for the assist."
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
She doesn't recognize her until she speaks up, but even that takes a second. The Yuuki here is a far cry from the Yuuki she met in the park - she's more assertive, and those eyes gleam bright green.
She thought she felt there was something to her that day, but to think Yuuki Hoshizora had a side like this to her...
How intriguing.
Her splash of water knocks the Shadow off-balance, and gravity propels Yuuki forward. Magus takes note of her technique, lowering her hand from her mask. She certainly seems to have recovered from the surprise quickly - to be able to launch into a maneuver like that so suddenly. She wouldn't have thought to use gravity that way. The Shadow is run through and, with a glance around to ensure there aren't more waiting in the... shadows, Magus straightens up, returning her parrying dagger to her cloak.
Bright green eyes meet masked blue ones. The shape of it obscures them - makes her difficult to read.
"I'm sure the Shadow thought the same, until my meddling... as much as they can 'think' anything." Magus replies with a smirk. "But you're the one still standing now, so... you're welcome."
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki watches the parrying dagger return to the cloak. She looks Magus up and down, and there is a moment's pause. A feeling like maybe she should know this person -- but it passes. The mask, the outfit... none of it is something that registers to Yuuki. She exhales, before she steps closer to her. The smirk warrants a brief frown.
She glances to the side, flustered at being called on it -- and maybe that isn't so different from the girl that she met in the park.
"All they care about is how they can hurt people," she says. Then, she glances back at Magus. She sucks a breath in, squares her shoulders, and meets her eyes. "I really would have had it. I'll never let these things get the better of me again."
A beat.
"Yuuki Hoshizora!" she says by way of introductions, her expression terribly serious -- and spoken with more than a little pride. "Second generation Persona User. And you're...?"
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Magus catches that look, as Yuuki looks her up and down. She stands still - and does nothing to confirm or deny that she's someone she ought to know.
Yuuki looks away with a flustered look - and it might be that that confirms, no matter how different she might be, she's still her new classmate.
Magus meets Yuuki's eyes as she makes her declaration. 'Again', hm? Between that and what she said before...
"Ah, so it's personal, then." She notes. "Is that why you're out here? Satisfying a vendetta?"
If she had any suspicions she was mistaken, Yuuki dispels them by offering her name.
"You can call me Magus." She offers. It's obviously an alias - but perhaps that's no surprise. "...Second generation Persona User, hm? First time I've heard of that."
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"More like... just proving I can handle this, now," Yuuki says. She looks back at Magus, her expression quite serious once again. Her lips purse for a moment as she regards her question. "It's not really a vendetta. I doubt the Shadows care one whit about my feelings regarding them, besides."
She blinks, then. She spots the code name -- but she heard something about that. Persona Users with masks, who take on a different name. It makes her wonder who this is, under the mask.
...Probably not someone she knows.
"My parents are, too," she says. "So... I have to live up to their name." She puts a hand over her heart, fingers curled into a fist. "What about you? Why are you doing this?"
She tilts her head. "Casting spells, maybe?"
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Proving herself, hm?
"...Well, I suppose I can sympathise that. I'm no stranger to wanting to prove myself." Magus admits. She's no stranger to wanting to prove she's capable. She smirks, then, as Yuuki's lips purse. She seems pleased by the reaction. "As you said, the only thing they care about is hurting people. ...But a vendetta is really for you, isn't it? They don't care about what the target feels about it."
Yuuki explains that her parents are Persona Users, too, so she has to live up to their name. That explains 'second generation'. She doesn't envy that level of responsibility, though.
"Ah. So it's a curse, then." She comments bluntly. As for herself... Magus smirks, when Yuuki suggests she's here to cast spells. "Something like that. Let's just say I'm interested in gaining power."
She shrugs.
"...And besides. There's something relaxing about being out late like this when there's no one else around, isn't there?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"That's..."
Vendettas are for the person carrying it. Yuuki's fingers curl a little into a ball at her side. "I just don't like the way it sounds. It sounds so... harsh. Or immature. Or..."
She sighs. She pauses -- then she blinks her eyes, and she frowns at the term 'curse.' "It isn't a curse!" she insists. "It's... it's just something that I have to do. And have to see through." She looks to the side. "It's not... it's not something bad."
She looks back at Magus, though. Something... relaxing? She looks confused for a moment -- then she tilts her head. "I... I suppose. But, we're both here, aren't we? So... there is at least one other person around."
She remains stubborn, too, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Harsh or immature, hm? Maybe she's both of those things. But if she let herself worry too much about being viewed that way, she never would've been able to seize the strength to be where she is now. Magus's smirk doesn't fade.
"If you have to put it in a way you're more comfortable with, that's fine, too." She replies with a shrug.
She takes offense, though, to labeling her responsibility a curse. It's just something she has to do, has to see through - not something bad.
"Isn't it?" She asks - and then shrugs again. "I suppose you're the one carrying it. If that's how you feel, it's not my place to say. ...Just don't let it crush you."
Yuuki insists, too, that they're both here. There's at least one other person around. ...There's that stubborn streak. It's charming, in a way.
"...I suppose so, when you put it that way." She admits with a shrug. "You're far better company than the Shadows or the coffins, at least."
That's something like a compliment, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"It's not comfort. I just have to be better than that," Yuuki says. She looks up -- and she hesitates at the shrug. She takes a step closer, her hand coming back over my heart. "And I--I won't let it crush me! I have to be stronger. So I can do... so I can do what I have to."
She shakes her head, emphatically. "I can't let myself be distracted. Or I..."
She stops herself short. Admitting that she fears for her parents -- admitting they're trapped in that Atelier -- is too much. She bites her lip, but she keeps looking at Misato.
So when Magus says that she better company than the Shadows or the coffins, she can see the smile tug at the corners of her lips. She glances to the side, a little flustered.
"W-Well, I guess I'm... providing an argument. So I'm happy to be of service," she says. But she looks at Magus from the corner of her eye, at how she responds to that.
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
She has to be better than that? Magus smirks.
"Do you, though? You should let yourself cut loose sometime. I think you'd enjoy it a lot more." She comments. Yuuki steps forward, though, a hand over her heart. Her passionate insistence... that gives Magus pause. She hasn't seen her nearly this passionate before... except perhaps when discussing approaches to improving her rocket. This feels a bit different than that, though - it feels like... scratching just at the surface of something. Something that Yuuki stops herself from admitting. Magus look away. It's hard to look her in the eye when she's like that. "...Well. Then I hope that resolve of yours holds out."
She looks back at Yuuki, though, at that flustered partial smile. That reaction seems to bring back some of her previous energy.
"My compliments. You do make a fine sparring partner." She replies. Verbal sparring, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Does she?
"It's--it's not about enjoying it," Yuuki says. "I don't... if I get distracted, then I could lose everything. I don't have time for--for letting myself do something frivolous!" She bites her lip again, looking at Magus as she looks away. Was it something she said, just then? She hesitates, and looks down herself.
But Magus seems to rebound. And she does look up again -- and a small smile plays across her lips.
"You're not bad, yourself," she says. She hesitates, before she ventures: "You... said you wanted to get stronger?"
She isn't sure if she is allowed to ask questions of someone who hides her face behind a mask. But, on the other hand, does not being allowed stop Yuuki?
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
...She's really quite driven, isn't she? Magus considers her for a moment. That just makes her all the more curious - curious to learn what it is lying under the surface that causes her to push herself so hard. The mysterious transfer student angle was already reason enough, but now...
"So that's what it is. You have a purpose." Magus comments. ...They may be more alike than she thought - even if their approaches to it seem to vastly differ.
Yuuki managing a smile, though, and admitting that she isn't bad gets a small smile out of Magus, too.
"Why, thank you." She replies. A question... Is it allowed? Well, she doesn't see any harm in it. She nods. "That's right. That's my goal right now."
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"Yes," Yuuki answers.
She lifts her chin. It's easier when she is being stubborn -- defiant, even. Rather than letting her doubts and fears showing. "I have a purpose, and I have to become... no. I've become the sort of person who can see it through." Her voice quiets. "No matter what I have to give up."
To protect the people she loves most.
When she sees the small smile on Magus's lips, hers lingers. It fades after a moment, though. "...If it would help..."
She glances away. Her pride keeps her from saying that she asks for herself, too.
"...We could spar more than verbally, sometimes," she says. "If you think it would be useful, for you goal."
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Becoming the sort of person who can see it through, no matter what she has to give up... That takes determination. Magus considers her thoughtfully. What could it be that makes her willing to sacrifice so much?
"...Well then. Let's see how far that takes you." She decides. She wants to know more... but Yuuki seems to be playing her cards close to the chest right now. That's fine - she is, too, so it's only fair. Maybe Misato would have a better chance at getting her to open up, but she doesn't want to be pushy, either.
Yuuki's smile fades, though, and Magus watches her intently as it seems she's trying to figure out how to say something. And she laughs softly, when she makes her offer.
...She might see through the way she tries to say it in a way that keeps her pride intact.
"If you think you're up for it... than sure. After seeing you fight, I'm interested in seeing what you're capable of." Magus decides.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki stares back at Magus, as she says that. Her fingers are still balled into a fist at her side. And if she looks closely, Misato can see a slight tremble to that fist. She wonders, for a moment. Why does she care that this masked girl believe that she is so resolute, so determined in this?
Why is she worried that Magus will see something else in her?
She wishes, for a moment, that she could be someone else. That she could -- could just forget. Like she did with Misato, and she could smile and laugh, and it would be easy. She wishes she could see her.
But even when Dark Hour ends, it would be far too late for that.
She is distracted, for a moment, as she thinks of that -- but the laugh takes her out of it. She looks at Magus for a moment, and she gets a smile for a second. "...Of course I'm up for it," she says. "But... I'd be interested to see what you're capable of. And I'm curious..."
She tilts her head. A couple of locks of bright blue hair sway in front of her forehead, shining as they do. "...What it's like when you cut loose."
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Magus watches Yuuki. She still has a fist clenched tight. That slight tremble... Magus notices it - but she doesn't call attention to it. She notices that distracted look, too - but eventually, she gets a smile.
Yuuki agrees - and then turns her statement back around her.
Magus smirks. Now that's a fun response. It's like a direct challenge... She's always had a bit of a competitive streak - how can she not rise to it?
"Well, when you put it like that... Just name a time and place, Yuuki Hoshizora, and I'll be there." She says.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki's clenched fist relaxes, slowly, when Magus agrees to her suggestion -- or perhaps challenge. She lets herself smile, again.
It might be fun, she thinks. To see what she is really capable of. To see what Magus is capable of. And if that's also a distraction...
Well, sometimes, Yuuki is good at lying to herself.
"Let's say... a week from today, here. And at the same time," she says. After all, they would need to be during the Dark Hour -- or otherwise Mementos or one of the more dangerous parts of Sumaru. Her head tilts, her green eyes on those blue eyes behind the mask. "Do we have a deal, Magus?"
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
"A week from today. Same time, same place." Magus repeats, to make certain she has everything down. She nods to herself, making a mental note. She's definitely not going to miss it. She nods her confirmation. "We have a deal."
A grin crosses her face.
"I'm looking forward to it."
...When was the last time she could honestly say she was looking forward to something...?
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki nods. She looks serious, for a moment. After all, this is an agreement to get better together -- to become stronger by practicing. It's--
She sees that grin.
A huff escapes her lips and she glances to the side, flustered once again. But, there is a small smile. "Good," she says. "B-Because... I'll give you everything I've got!"
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
...Yuuki looks flustered again, but Magus sees that smile. She might hold herself a certain way, but a part of her seems to be enjoying this, too.
Still, saying she'll give her everything she's got... Magus can't exactly back down from that.
"I'd expect nothing less. Don't hold back on my account - I want to see it all." Magus confirms with a nod. "I'll see you then, Yuuki Hoshizora~."