2026-08-05: Hunting a Homunculus
- Log: Hunting a Homunculus
- Cast: Kanae Fuyuki, Roger, Kazusa Motojima, Yuuki Hoshizora, Tsumugi Kujaku, Yanagi Nagisa
- Where: Shimokitazawa - Peacock Silk
- OOC Date: August 05, 2026
- IC Date: Thursday, December 20, 2012
- Summary: Kanae leads a group of Persona Users to Peacock Silk to request their help with Shinichi's Homunculus. They learn some surprising things--and some of it has an unusual price.
(|======================= Shimokitazawa - Peacock Silk =======================|)
-================================================ Tokyo/Shimokitazawa Ward ====-
Peacock Silk roosts in a restored three-story Taisho building; the front is clad
with shiny copper in verdant green, interrupted by a slim front of brick,
suggesting the building grew together. A little lacuna brings one past Peacock
Silk's windows and into a suddenly-quiet enclosure - surrounded by traditional
burnt-cedar siding, with a flower bed, stone benches, trash and recycling (a
minor miracle in Tokyo) and a vending machine holding truly eccentric drinks,
served cold.
Peacock Silk proper takes up most of the street level of the building. The
entrance is not on the street, but a bit out of the way -- there is a door, now
barred and false, with a tiny placard (too small to be seen from any distance)
stating 'That Way' with a helpful arrow. The shop's entrance has double doors,
guarded by a wrought-iron gate featuring an Art-Nouveau outline of a peacock
with tail in full spread, standing atop a banner reading PEACOCK and SILK to the
left and right.
The store's interior is starkly modern: light wood flooring and white walls,
interrupted with the shop's goods, artisanal tools mounted behind the counter,
and - where a vast space of white makes an irresistible canvas - large pieces of
black-and-white art, rotating periodically. The register and checkout is on your
right as you come in, along with a small display of old-fashioned scales and
assaying tools, doubtless for show. To the entrance's left is a ramped platform
with stout wooden perches, several of different heights. The store's mascot, a
real live peacock, often perches here, peering in judgment on customers and
surveying his domain. (The bird accepts snacks.)
The back of the shop is ruled by a long counter, loosely split into thirds - one
space for glittering jewelry on busts and in glass cases and on twinkling
stands. Another for leather goods, white and black and brown and red; purses and
belts, chokers and bracelets galore. Towards the back, more complete outfits,
with several mannequins bearing signature pieces or unique offerings, often in
dramatic poses. The staff maneuver them now and then; sometimes when a customer
isn't looking.
Towards the far end of the shop, several changing booths have been formed from
interior dividers, holding the basics -- some room to maneuver, somewhere to
hang up clothes, and several mirrors to check yourself. Stepping right outside
of the changing voice is dazzling -- many of the store's modern track lightings
are skewed just so, producing a spotlight effect, like stepping out on stage.
Alone in the world. The perfect visual baptism to celebrate a new individual.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Peacock Silk: fashionable, but not just fashionable. Apparently they're the best people to ask, outside Roger, about Homunculi. And Kanae Fuyuki for one needs all the information that she can get if she's going to Hunt this one--this one, who's already wreaking havoc on her life just doing what it does.
What 'he' does.
Kanae doesn't exactly feel her best, but she can't show up to a place like this looking haggard. She's in a short skirt with white leggings against the cold, and flats--along with a pink sweater over a yellow top. It all suits her well--she just... isn't really in the mood to be thinking of fashion at the moment. Despite that, her purse has some cute charms...
more to the point, she's not alone; she has brought Kazusa, Roger, and apparently Yuuki along with her here. Kanae's dark features are writ in contemplation as she walks into the lovely store, looking around immediately. Her eyes go over the tools behind the counter, the rotating art... Glittering jewelry, leather goods, signature pieces.
"...Hello?" she greets, letting herself be the first person to speak up.
It's still daytime on Sunday, late afternoon at the latest. The weather is chilly but otherwise fine.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger's happy to give the general breakdown and basics, as by his nature he does not like Homunculi.
It is true that Peacock Silk seems to have a good handle with Ateliers as a whole, so he's on board to come with Kanae to help meet with them.
Roger, in his human world guise, still looks like a weird but plausible heavy-set human being. He doesn't have much money to his name between a job that barely pays and the need to rent out booths to have a place to sleep, but he is content. He at least got access to warmer clothes, albeit of faded reddish-brown colors and clear second-hand origin. (Being hot or cold is weird. It is another strange rule of learning how to play as a human.)
"Hello!" Roger guilelessly says, following up Kanae's more reserved greeting. "Wow, look at all of these things..."
He leans a little too closely into some of the display pieces than might be seen as 'a good idea.'
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa, likewise, isn't really feeling that great. She wanted to enjoy the Christmas Village the day before, but... with keeping a paranoid eye out for the Homunculus, it was mostly just... stressful.
She showed up today dressed in a long, dark red coat with a white (faux) fur collar, a black dress, slightly lighter red tights, and black leather boots. She's sporting a small black backpack that is probably designer.
She's trying to mask her tiredness with the Demon Queen's indifferent mask, and it's only partly working. For this meeting she had called a person she'd met in Mementos, Yuuki Hoshizora. They'd arranged a meeting and shown up together.
"Fuyuki-san, Roger-san, this is Yuuki Hoshizora. Hoshizora-san, this is Kanae Fuyuki and..." There's a pause, and a wince. "... Roger." She drops her voice. "... I don't think he has a last name. It's complicated. I don't know how to get into it right now."
She gestures at the side entrance. "And that's... Peacock Silk. Between Roger-san and Peacock Silk, there's everything you could hope to know about Ateliers or Homunculi."
She'll step in after Kanae, and she's giving the other Shujin a look like she wants to say something, but isn't.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"I like the first name I was given just fine," Roger says without thought or introspection on how weird it is. "I don't need two!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki Hoshizora is a somewhat short teenaged girl. Wearing the Sevens uniform, with a dark blue coat over it, she looks reasonably sharp -- and she looks nervous. Her short hair is neatly combed. Her dark green eyes scan -- from Kanae to Roger. Then, she nods.
"Thank you, Motojima-san. It's a pleasure to make everyone's acquaintance. Is Roger-san okay?" she asks him, before she looks back at Peacock Silk. "...I've been here once," Yuuki says.
She swallows.
"...I want to know more. I've only been in an Atelier once," she says. "And it didn't go well. This next time..." Her eyes close. "...It has to go better."
She steps in after Kanae and Kazusa then. She doesn't call out -- the quiet one has decided enough people said hello.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
*ding*
There's a welcoming warmth to Peacock Silk, like the warm air as wrapping itself around you and beckoning you away from the unforgiving bonechill of winter. It gushes out as soon as those doors open, and by the time they close, it's like the season is nothing more than a distant memory in the quiet bastion of the boutique.
Warmth -- and very little else, except what seems like the distant smell of curry, and,
BGM: https://youtu.be/Vhxx4a5eaQU Tsugaru kaikyou fuyu geshiki - Sayuri Ishikawa
the sounds of classic enka lamenting the winter, piped through the Silk's speakers.
It's probably one of the less odd music the shop has played, to be honest.
Otherwise, though? The shop seems empty, at first glance. Seems empty, because it's clearly not, if that scent of cooking food in the floor above is any indication. Roger, however, has free reign to get as inadvisably close to fragile glass cases as he likes, however, at least for the first few precious handful of seconds the group arrives--
"You look troubled."
--until that calm voice cuts through Sayuri Ishikawa's heartfelt signing.
They're there. The truth is, they always have been, just a little out of sight: at the stairs leading up to the second floor, there's a tall, slender figure, just kind of... laid out. Literally laying on steps like a cat on their favorite unorthodox perch, Tsumugi Kujaku is presently in the midst of blandly scrolling through their phone. Black-rimmed oval glasses covering vividly green eyes, the proprietor of the Peacock is dressed for the season, so to speak, in the form of a strict, long-sleeved white button-up buttoned all the way up to the very top button. A black overcoat, trimmed in gold with a gold interior, drapes over their shoulders, pooling against the steps beneath them, a black underbust corset with cold binding leading to a black, thigh-length skirt, sheer black stockings, and, as if to defy the otherwise pseudo-professional trappings of the rest of their outfit, thick, stomping calf-high boots, the toes of them a nice, polished gold.
Fingers sheathed in the black leather of a pair of gloves, designed with a peacock feather of gold filigree on the backs and set with an 'eye' of sapphire on each, idly flick from screen to screen as Tsumugi stares at whatever is on their phone in marked disinterest.
They say nothing else. There's no indication which of them they were even talking to, considering it doesn't seem like they even so much as looked up from their phone.
And yet that calm, distant voice seems so very certain.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi is on day two of bad health days. Sometimes there are streaks like this. (Often there are streaks like this.) That's why it's so important to cherish the time and experiences you've got--with Tominaga Chiropractic in the next city over, she probably won't die of her terminal condition anytime soon, but you never really know when death will arrive, do you?
So even though she is not made up or dressed all that nicely, when Kanae and friends arrive and she senses their Resonance, she decides she absolutely must see what's going on.
As Tsumugi addresses the four visitors, there is a clatter-clatter-clatter to one side from the elevator. Out steps Yanagi, her long, wavy hair unbound for once, clad in slippers and cozy flannel pajamas and generally lacking jewelry, unlike usual. Despite this, they're designed in black, dark blue, and royal purple, and hand-studded with crystals (actual crystals, not just rhinestones), to resemble the night sky. It's a stunning effect. On as Tsumugi is or off as Yanagi, the employees of Peacock Silk are always fabulous.
Yanagi smiles sleepily, first at her employer (among other things). "Tsumugi~" she lilts tiredly as she tup-tups over to them. "Are you doing something fun and interesting?" She flops onto the step next to where they're draped and turns her smile to Roger and the others (and it is focused first and foremost on Roger rather than Kanae). "Just kidding--of course you are~! So what brings all you Persona Users here today?"
Ah. As direct as ever. Would you believe that she used to be quite reserved? ...Well, why would you? Outside of Peacock Silk, it's not like there's anyone around who'd know the difference.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Really, Kanae should've spent more time on introductions for Yuuki's sake. She didn't, though. She also doesn't stop to wait for Kazusa to say whatever it was she was going to say. She just looks around the shop, listens to the music, and sniffs the distant smell of curry... "I guess if you can get away with just one name that's fine..."
It does seem empty, doesn't it? Until--%rAh. Kanae looks around immediately, her dark eyes casting about for--there. The figure just... laying there.
Like a cat.
"Ah..."
She stares at Tsumugi for a few moments, right up until she hears the clatter from the eleavor and Yanagi appears. She seems... comfortable? But also shiny. It really is a stunning effect. But then--
"Great," Kanae says immediately, looking to the others--particularly Roger--then back to Yanagi.
"We are," she says, looking to Tsumugi. Then back to Yanagi, "But that means we don't have to pretend we don't all know what we're talking about." She seems to appreciate that directness. So she walks up a little closer to Yanagi, saying, "Our friend's been replaced by a Homunculus," she says, also direct. "That Homunculus is causing a lot of trouble--and we need to figure out how to Hunt it as quickly as we can."
"This isn't my first time with a Homunculus," she says, "But this one's... interested... in me. So I'm kind of anxious to get it done."
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"That's fine!" Roger replies to the teenaged girl in the Sevens uniform. Roger has a strangeness not only in that it's not clear if he's of high school or young adult age, there's a certain emotional earnestness that seems more common in younger individuals and media giving simpler expressions of emotion.
He turns about-face. "It will!" His face stiffens, and then a boar-like snort. "We won't allow them to play with that guy much lon--"
'You look troubled.'
"Eee!" Roger startles, just missing hitting a display piece as he finds himself taken aback. How you do describe it, when a presence is somehow both recognizable but also vague and distant? Like a fleeting acknowledgement of being.
"Oh! Nagisa-chan!" Roger eases, some. "It's nice to see you! I'd love to see you play again at the arcade later!"
"Um," he looks down, "but first..."
He yields it to Kanae to explain the situation in greater detail than he may. (He wouldn't get too far beyond 'there is a Homunculus and I hate that it's there,' in fairness.)
"...This one sounds really intense," Roger muses aloud, tilting his head. Kanae is asking for help from Peacock Silk, so he'll yield the floor on that front for now.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
At Roger's comment Kazusa sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes for a moment. Don't snap at him again. You still have to apologize for the last time. Don't snap at him again. You still have to apologize for the last time...
But Yuuki's been here. "Oh, okay. That's good then, I guess." But the last time Yuuki was in an Atelier... "... Yeah. We'll figure that out. As soon as we deal with..." There's a pensive look that crosses her face as she glances away. "... the one at our school."
And the place is seemingly empty. But there's somebody home--and Kazusa only takes notice once Tsumugi speaks. Laying on the stairs... isn't that a bit reckless? Still, black and gold is a good combination...
'You look troubled.'
Kazusa says nothing as she looks to Kanae. She spoke first, Kazusa will let the other girl respond. She's pulling off her gloves and stuffing them into her jacket pockets. She also looks to Yanagi as she enters. Are those real crystals? For pajamas? That's actually a cool effect...
... but is it weird to compliment someone's pajamas? They're clearly designed and not mass market, but even so... they're not that familiar with each other, right?
And Kanae does speak up. Kazusa loses the moment to say something. They can talk later. But when she mentions that the Homunculus is 'interested' in her, Kazusa looks away from her for a moment, burying her face into the fur collar of her coat.
But Roger comments on the Homunculus being intense. "Yeah, he is. And he's not 'playing' so don't call it that." Dammit, she snapped a little bit. But that one was important. There's a momentary blink as Roger greets 'Nagisa-chan' but Kazusa shakes it off. Just a coincidence.
She steps forward, up next to Kanae. "His name is Shinichi Nagisa. He's a second-year at Shujin. he's..." She scowls a little, gaze dipping downward as her cheeks tinge. "... in my class."
She hates talking about the Homunculus, but she tries to remind herself that the Homunculus isn't the real person.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki looks at Kanae. She hesitates; she is direct, and in a way that throws her off guard a little. She is used to needing to be polite, to explain herself, to considering things. And Kanae simply forges straight ahead.
"I-I'm glad," Yuuki says to Roger. She does look at him -- and notes that determination as he marches in. Maybe, she thinks, he's a little weird... but he seems determined. She can respect that.
She looks at Kazusa -- and then she nods. "...Yeah," she says. "This one needs to come first. And I could... I could use the experience."
Yuuki stares when she sees Tsumugi. Her companions have an excellent sense of fashion. And true, when she summons her Persona, she has an excellent sense of fashion. But this outfit is something so utterly beyond what she expected, and it fits them perfectly. The teenager opens her mouth, then closes it.
"Um."
She shakes her head. "You--you have a very impressive outfit," the Sevens student says. "No, that came out wrong..."
She looks at Yanagi. She swallows, before she lifts a hand up in a wave. Kanae explains -- then she glances down. But she looks up, after.
She says, simply, after Kazusa: "I don't know Nagisa-san, but... I want to help," she says. "I don't want a homunculus to replace anyone else."
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
'Tsumugi~'
"Sa-ya~."
How can someone lilt and yet deadpan at the same time?
It truly is a terrible, powerful gift.
Green eyes do not drift up from their phone even as Yanagi enters in that tired, fatigued way they are so familiar with, as if her poor health wasn't anything worth waxing concern over -- or at least, anything unusual. It's hard to say which might be worse. Is Tsumugi doing something fun and interesting? Yanagi makes up her own answer before the owner of the boutique can even weigh in but likewise, Tsumugi seems unbothered by this, too.
The jeweler takes a seat near them; they hardly object. They just continue scrolling as Yanagi casually outs the others to set the stage for a frank discussion on desires, and necessities. What brings them here?
Roger responds to Tsumugi's presence in an entirely reasonable way, starting and nearly causing collateral damage in the process. Even if they don't look up, Tsumugi's brows lift fractionally in response. But not because of the nearly toppled display; no, of course not.
"Ah, the Sanguin." That. That's what piques them. And, indeed, there's an edge of curiosity in their typically bland-yet-silken voice as they recognize Roger('s voice?). After all...
"Mm. That's not right. You're yourself, now. Not someone else's. Roger, right?" Their scrolling pauses. One might see those green eyes flick briefly towards the corner of their gaze, past a veil of asymmetric black bangs.
"What do you think of the world of humans, Roger?"
It's not the reason they're here. But it is the thing that Tsumugi is most immediately curious about, and it seems like they freely chase their interest without hesitation despite the others ostensibly being here on important business. Indeed, it might be the most they've said all day -- and when the others begin, Tsumugi falls quiet once again, gaze affixed to their screen even as Kanae explains that she has become a particular target of a Homunculus'... 'interest'.
No; they don't speak again in fact until, first: Yuuki comments on their outfit. They have a very impressive outfit, she says -- and then immediately retracts. Leather-wrapped fingers flick a screen over.
"So I don't have a very impressive outfit," they suggest, logically, based on Yuuki's follow up, which may or may not make her feel even more flustered. Was it intentional? Deliberate teasing? Or a natural consequence of Tsumugi's... Tsumugi?
Who can say, really--?
After that, though, they fall silent, with only a little "mm" of acknowledgment to follow what Kanae says, until the second - third - thing is said to draw their attention, courtesy of Kazusa.
His name is Shinichi Nagisa. He's a second-year at Shujin.
Tsumugi pauses, fractionally.
"Shinichi Nagisa," they repeat, so close to Yanagi, as if just to get the name right. The way they look up over their phone briefly towards Yanagi is easy to miss, before their attention turns to their guests.
That vivid green gaze is piercing as it roams over all of them. Roger and Kazusa, they know. But Yuuki and Kanae...
It's the former they take in first, that gaze seeming to look straight through her as she talks about why she's here.
"So you just want to help," they suggest. It doesn't end in a question, and yet the suggestion is there, as if like an open hand offering for she could take to fill in the blank as she wishes--
before their gaze shifts towards Kanae.
"Tell me about Nagisa-san. All about him."
They have not, yet, looked Yanagi's way. Nor have they prompted her at all.
As if to let her respond, or not, however she likes.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Tsumugi's cat-like languidity is charming, isn't it? At least, Yanagi thinks so. Their eternal calm (read: indifference) is soothing to someone who grew up being fussed over and treated like she's made of glass. That this treatment was usually well-meant did not make it any less vexing, depending on the person and the circumstance.
That they can lilt while deadpan is a great and terrible gift. In return, Yanagi displays her own power by heartbubbling aloud at them. How? Don't ask silly questions.
"Hello, Roger! It's nice seeing you too!" Yanagi chirps, waving at him from the stairs. "Yes, I'd love to come visit you at the arcade again! There were so many cute prizes and I want to try winning some!" Thanks to having encountered him that way before, she has an idea of how he might answer Tsumugi's question, but she sets her cane to one side and leans her chin on her hands to listen to that back-and-forth.
Still, there is business to be had, and Kanae meets directness with directness. Yanagi nods as she explains the situation--the use of the word 'Hunt' in this context is a little unusual, but she doesn't read too much into it--then gives her a sunny smile despite (or because of?) her serious, discomfited demeanor. "You've come to the right place, then! We'll happily help you out with that. You don't even need to pay us--we'll just take the spoils at the end and call it even."
Kazusa could have complimented Yanagi's pajamas and she wouldn't have minded at all... but she didn't, so the moment passes untouched. Instead, she smiles at her next. All four of them seem so serious!
When Kazusa names the parasitized person, Yanagi's cheery demeanor drains away like the life from a euthanized cat's eyes.
Tsumugi repeats the name, and Yuuki partway after them, as if it were a deteriorating echo. That's how it rings in her ears.
"...Shinichi...?"
Yanagi is already very pale. By now, she looks downright spectral. If she noticed the way Tsumugi glanced ever-so-briefly at her, she doesn't remark on it. Indeed, she suddenly falls silent as her now-haunted stare sinks to the floor.
No, not quite silent. It might be hard to hear with her now mumbling, almost whispering, but she murmurs, "Tall... with red hair...?"
Say--looking at her fine porcelain features, there's something of a resemblance, isn't there?
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
In other circumstances, Kanae would be right there with Yuuki--she'd be mor ehesitant, for one. But in this one... Well. In the supernatural she feels powerful, capable. And she needs to take care of this.
She agrees, though; Tsumugi's outfit is really impressive. What makes her look back at Yuuki though is the way she knows Homunculi... but isn't someone she recognizes from Kazusa's Atelier. Kanae thus looks at her face for a few moments, and then back at Yanagi. She does reflect it's worse in some ways for Kazusa to share a class with him... it, Isabeau would say.
'Charming' is a good word for how Kanae finds Tsumugi, because there's something almost supernatural in the way that they seem to her to move. That vivid gaze; those catlike movements. Kanae wonders... %rBut Roger knows them, at least. Kanae would've usually made small talk, but...
"Thanks," Kanae says first. Because the help will be important. But... %rYanagi's life seems to drain away. She murmurs, and Kanae opens her mouth and closes it, looking between the two. "...Yes," she says first. "Tall, with red hair."
She doesn't know what's up with Yanagi there; she doesn't know their relationship, save that they clearly have one. But...
Tsumugi directed her.
"He's tall, with red hair," she confirms. "And he's a giant pushover. Everybody tells him what to do, and he mostly just does it. He used to do lacrosse; he quit for some reason. He never stands up for himself, and seems... really sad."
"The only thing he seems to care about is helping people. He volunteers at a hospital; he wants to be a nurse, not a doctor, because nurses do more 'caring' than distant doctors."
"He's not that manly," she admits, "And his easygoing nature kind of gets on my nerves a little..."
"...But I want him back, all the same. I should be angry. He got replaced, and it's frankly kind of ruining my life, but..."
Kanae shakes her head. "I'm a Hunter," she says. "Hunting the monsters that prey on people--saving those people--is what I do. So I'm going to do it."
She pauses. "...I don't know what relationship you two have," she says more uneasily to Yanagi, "And I'm sorry if I startled you..."
She should follow that up with something clever or resolute, but she just doesn't have anything.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger flinches again at Kzauza's building irritation with the way he seems to relate to everything as a form of play. This is useful, it quiets him as Kazusa leads into more in-depth conversation about the Homunculus in question.
'Ah, the Sanguin.'
Roger looks up. 'Mm. That's not right. You're yourself, now. Not someone else's. Roger, right?'
"Uh huh! That's me," he affirms, clearly and simply. 'What do you think of the world of humans?'
Roger looks up towards the ceiling. "The world of humans is so big... there are so many rules, if you want to play in it," he says. He levels, and smiles, hands together. "But I like being here! I'm glad I met everyone and got to follow them back. It's a lot of fun." To speak this so candidly in front of Yuuki, who is only coming to grips with this particular flavor of supernatural phenomena...
"Oh!" He turns about-face. "Hoshizora-chan! Um, I'm not from your human world," he presses his fingers, "and... after what happened with the Atelier I was in, I got my own Persona! Just like the rest of you! ...Um. There was a Homunculus running hog wild, and it felt like I was the only one who noticed and wanted to do something about it, but then people from outside came and helped me."
"So I decided, I wanted to play with everyone as someone." Spoken like a mantra, a will to live, a desire to be. A change.
Such a desire at the heart of Transmutation.
"...Oh! Oh dear. This isn't about me," no matter what a certain spider might think. Wherever she is. "Sorry..."
A thought hits him, as he murmurs to himself. "...Shinichi Nagisa... oh! Nagisa-chan! You share a name!" He tilts a head inquisitively. "Are we allowed to do that?"
He sees the horror in Yanagi's expression. He blinks. "Ummm... are you all right?"
...
Kanae does go into greater detail on how Shinichi was before the Homunculus took over, and he mercifully does not talk over that.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa doens't mind the directness in this case. Given what's been going on. She nods to Yuuki. "Thanks. I... don't want to put yours off, but..." She'd mentioned to Yuuki there was a new Homunculus. She hadn't mentioned the exact problem, though. But she appreciates that Yuuki states that she wants to make sure nobody else is taken over by a Homunculus.
Kazusa frowns a little at that word 'Sanguin.' She had it all explained to her, of course, but she's still trying to wrap her head around it. It's not like she's been back in an Atelier again to witness the differences.
Tsumugi repeats the name. "That's what I said," Kazusa replies, a bit tersely. Okay, she's definitely on edge today.
And serious. Well, she's often serious, but she's especially so today. But Yanagi says they'll just take the spoils. "... right." That's wht Tsumugi had explained before, though Kazusa still has some questions about that. But today is not the day for them.
'...Shinichi...?'
Kazusa watches the cheer drain, frowning deeper. There's mumbling. "... what was that?" A pause, and a concerned glance to Kanae. "... yeah," she confirms alog with her fellow Shujin student.
It's worse for Kazusa for more reasons than just sharing a class with him. But Kazusa hasn't managed to work up the nerve to tell anybody about that yet.
Kanae shares, and Kazusa has something to add on the topic of being a pushover. "... yeah. He got made class rep mostly because nobody else wanted to do it, and everybody just... pushes all the class chores they don't want to do onto him. And the teacher encourages it." Sheesh. That sounds... kind of bad when she puts it that way, huh?
After a moment, almost defensively, she adds, "... I stopped doing that, though."
Kazusa will make that two things to apologize to Roger for later. But not right here and now, she's too on edge. But Roger is explaining. Kazusa glances to Yuuki. "... he uses the same power we do. Fuyuki-san uses a different one, that's why she's talking about Hunting. But don't worry, she wants to help," she adds quietly, for Yuuki's benefit.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"It's okay," Yuuki says. "I... haven't been able to find it or--or the homunculus. Whereas this one is right here."
She looks at Roger, then at Tsumugi. Yuuki's eyes blink with surprise. The world of humans...?
Yuuki looks at Roger. She blinks -- not quite understanding what Tsumugi is getting at. And Roger's response -- and then his explanation -- makes her eyes widen sharply. "N-Not... from our human world? I--um--"
But, she sees what he means. A desire at the heart of Transmutation; a desire not unlike her own. She looks down. Then, she nods.
"I don't... know if I fully understand, Roger-san. But, I'm glad you're here. And I hope I can be helpful," she adds, with a hint of nervousness.
Then, Yuuki looks back at Tsumugi. And then she flusters promptly at their response -- shaking her head quickly. "N-No, that isn't what I meant, um, just--I--erm--" She sputters, then she turns red-faced, and she finally hangs her head.
She is embarrassed.
She recovers in time to answer their not-quite-a-question. "I... yes," she answers. "I want to help. But... I admit the experience would be valuable, besides."
She looks at Yanagi. She didn't make the connection, at first. But then it dawns on her. Yanagi must know him; she looks mortified, then, and her eyes start to widen sharply. She looks at Kanae, then, and blinks.
"I'm... I'm sorry," she says. "It... it's not easy." It's not quite a platitude, but she isn't used to offering her sympathies to strangers. Especially on a subject that hits close to home.
She looks back at Kazusa. Yuuki hesitates -- but then she nods. "I understand. I've met a few different... um. Ways of bringing about a Persona," she says, a little hesitantly. "It's okay."
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
The world of humans is so big. And full of rules.
"Humans love their games, even if they don't like to call them that. They think it lessens what they've built, to use that word." Tsumugi's gaze returns to their phone for a moment, eyeing a series of messages on their screen.
"They'd live happier lives if they were just honest and learned they can play their games for their own enjoyment, don't you think?"
Head tilting back, Tsumugi rests the back of it against the wall as it lulls to the right to regard Roger with a hooded stare, as he explains to Yuuki what he is, where he came from. Came from. The only pig Sanguin at a carnival of clowns. The only Humor unaffected by the Homunculus.
"..."
Their gaze shuts. Their head tilts back up. And they offer:
"You should be careful, Roger. Keep an eye out for the humans who make the games everyone else lives in. The rules of those games exist for their sake, after all."
And with that, Tsumugi's interest moves on to the main event, so to speak, drifting from one topic to the next with an almost molasses-slow lack of urgency, yet with an inexorable shift all the same. As if content to go at their own pace, and let others follow along its wake, or not. So too do they move past Yuuki's tragic embarrassment as if they hadn't even caused it in favor of glancing between her and Kazusa, head canting at a curious angle as the two discuss something. Not the Homunculus she's looking for.
She wants to help, but also, she wants the experience.
"You're looking for a Homunculus," they say, once again stating rather than asking. "A different one." Important enough that she sees this as potentially valuable in preparing her for dealing with it.
"Ara."
And yet for now, they move on once again, sloughing off their interest in Yuuki's personal goals (and they are interested) like a snake sheds its skin in the favor of something else that calls their attention:
"...Shinichi...?"
The way Yanagi pales at the revelation of that familiar name.
Tall, and redheaded. Tsumugi watches the haunted Yanagi as she asks that question. And as Kanae confirms it -- Tsumugi shifts wordlessly in their stairwell perch. No one has any right to move as gracefully in a skirt like that as Tsumugi does, yet gracefully their do move, a fluid slink that sees them shifting around until they are perched directly behind Yanagi.
White-sleeved arms slip 'round the jewelers shoulders. Gloved fingers lace against her collar.
And a chin rests comfortably atop the bed of her hair, even as she looks downward. The others apologize. Roger asks if she's alright.
Tsumugi does no such thing, their green-eyed gaze focusing on the others even as they settle their chin comfortably atop Yanagi.
Is she alright? That's for her to determine. Tsumugi pins their interests elsewhere, even as they stay in close proximity to their partner.
"'A Hunter,'" repeats Tsumugi once more. One can practically feel the capitalization, as if there was some unspoken emphasis that fascinates them even as Kazusa elucidates. "That's fine. Everyone needs to find a way to get free. The way you shatter your chains doesn't matter, as long as they're shattered." As for the rest, though...
A pushover. Never stands up for himself. Easygoing. Not that manly.
The only thing he seems to care about is helping people.
"..."
A leather-wrapped finger taps once, twice against Yanagi's collar.
"People want things for themselves," Tsumugi says suddenly. Their stare is distant, like they were looking at - speaking to - something far away, yet their words cut in all the same. "It's what makes them their self, and not just another faceless form in the crowd. People you call 'pushovers' are the ones who don't have the things that make their heart beat. When they look inside themselves, what do they see, I wonder? Do they look for something to desire and find nothing? Or maybe the thing they want disgusts them? Or maybe they have a regret that festers in their heart, a regret they can't possibly fix and just leaves them with a deep, gnawing emptiness."
Tsumugi's eyes shut. Their head tilts, until their cheek rests on Yanagi's scalp. The words they speak reach her that much more closely, thanks to it.
"... Regardless, a 'person who only cares about helping others' is a 'person who can't grasp what they want.' It's out of reach. And so instead, they just surrender.
"And let their own wants and needs be devoured by others'."
An exhale.
"Pure selflessness is just giving up your self. What comes after is the natural consequence."
A Homunculus, oozing in between the cracks.
Is it their own, random musings? Or is it a dressing down of the young man who has made Yanagi so uneasy?
Regardless, silence lingers afterwards for four long seconds. And then, suddenly, they say, "A Homunculus born like that will be very aggressive. It won't take particularly long for it to suffocate a complacent host who just gives freely of himself. And then it will get much worse."
Their gaze focuses on Kanae. But their words aren't just for her.
"If you want to save him, you need to know him. Not the things you project onto him that he surrendered to. Shinichi Nagisa."
They need to know the real him.
But how?
Tsumugi does not speak a word about that part, of course.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Roger confirms that playing in the human world is tough, but worthwhile; Tsumugi remarks on games in turn.
"So true," Yanagi chirps in agreement. She knows she's much happier now that she lives that way!
Tsumugi also observes that Yuuki has a different Homunculus she's looking for. "Oh! That's the one Saika and me talked to before," she tells them, pointing Yuuki's way. "The one with the married friends!" She looks back at Yuuki. "Or was it mentors?"
Certainly it couldn't have been family. She would just say so--right?
She tilts her head when Roger flinches from Kazusa's scolding tone. However, at this point, she doesn't get a chance to ask about it before Shinichi is named, and...
Kanae confirms that Shinichi is tall with red hair, on top of being a second-year at Shujin Academy. Now Yanagi is silent, bowing her head until her eyes are shadowed. The description... he quit lacrosse; he doesn't stand up for himself; he's very sad; he wants to be a nurse, and volunteers at a hospital...
"......"
Roger observes, apparently for the first time, that Shinichi and Yanagi share a name. Kanae apologizes; with the same words, Yuuki offers her condolences; Roger, more saliently, asks if she's okay.
Yanagi doesn't respond to this verbally. The tears that have begun to stream down her cheeks say it all for her.
She would continue like this, fumbling for her cane, if not for how Tsumugi glides over behind her and rests their hands on her shoulders and chin atop her head. This interrupts whatever turmoil Yanagi is experiencing, as she tilts her head just slightly their direction before stilling and shutting her eyes. She makes a token effort to wipe her face, but the calming effect Tsumugi has seems much more effective.
This too is interrupted briefly, though, when Kazusa describes how Shinichi has been in her class--then adds defensively that she stopped doing that, implying she was doing it before. Her eyes snap open, betraying the cold anger therein.
"You were bullying him?" she asks, and its quietness does not diminish its razor edge.
As a big sister herself, Kazusa might recognize some of that sentiment.
However, it soon drains out of her like the color had only a moment before. If not for Tsumugi's weight on her, she would slump. Instead, she listens to them weigh in and, when they tap her collar, raises a hand to Tsumugi's, just within reach.
Or maybe they have a regret that festers in their heart, a regret they can't possibly fix and just leaves them with a deep, gnawing emptiness.
A 'person who only cares about helping others' is a 'person who can't grasp what they want.' It's out of reach. And so instead, they just surrender.
What comes after is the natural consequence.
"...."
Deep sorrow remains in her features as Tsumugi explains to Kanae and the others what needs doing. Her tears, though slowed, do not stop.
"...Tsumugi." She sniffles. "True freedom is hard to grasp after all, isn't it?" She wipes her face again, ineffectually. "You really were right."
Another sniffle. This time, though, she focuses on their visitors. "Shinichi... This happened just recently. Sometime... after the seventh, I would think...?"
Though her voice lifts enough to frame it as a question, there's something of her tone that makes it clear she already knows--she only seeks confirmation.
In point of fact, it was right after the seventh.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Kanae finally breaks away to look at Roger again. A 'Sanguin'. Talking about 'the world of humans'. He confirms what he is, more or less. A Persona...
Well, she remembers fighting alongside him. "People are allowed to do that," Kanae says, more gently than anything else she's said so far. And then she considers Kazusa, too. Well, she's trying, anyway. Doing her best. And she explains about--Kanae.
"So you've got someone close to you in danger, too," Kanae reflects to Yuuki. "...I'll help if I can. But I have to stop my own life being on fire before I can help anybody else's."
Games and rules...? Kanae watches Tsumugi. But their warning to Roger seems 'real'. Seems accurate.
Capitalization. "Right," Kanae confirms. But... she looks troubled, at that. Are her chains shattered? Is she 'free'?
No. She couldn't say she is.
People want things for themselves...
Kanae, too, can be a pushover. She bites her lip, hard, at the way Tsumugi explains. "..." Does it disgust her, knowing that half of what she likes in the first place about Touma is how secure he is? How much safer she feels with him? ...That it might not be 'passion' at all?
"Giving up your 'self'," Kanae reflects. But she looks right back to Tsumugi when they focus on her. "It's very aggressive," Kanae agrees.
"...Then..."
Who is 'Shinichi Nagisa'?
"Then I'll save him," Kanae says, certain. Maybe, in saving him, she can find her 'self'. The answer to that question.
Kanae glances to Kazusa at the matter of bullying. "Might as well be honest," Kanae offers distantly, and turns her attention to Yanagi.
"Yeah. After the seventh," Kanae agrees. "The ninth... is when he got to me."
"When it kissed me." She flips between pronouns, trying to do it Isabeau's way but not quite being able. "..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki is quiet as Tsumugi explains more about the homunculus. About all of them -- and about Shinichi's. Someone who surrenders, and lets their own needs and wants be devoured. She looks down, her eyes narrowing; then, her fingers curl into a fist at her side.
They will need to know him. The real him -- not the things projected onto him.
She looks at Yanagi, and then she winces as she sees that she is crying. She winces, before she looks down. "The... teacher I knew," she says. "It was--I think it might have been similar. We... we've got to learn what we can. And help him. For--"
She swallows, then looks back at Yanagi. "...for family." Then at Kanae, and she blanches to hear what the Homunculus did. She swallows, looking down. "And... and for his sake, too."
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger has a moment of contemplation as he looks up while Kazusa talks about people pushing everything upon things they don't want to do.
"Pushing things they don't want to do on them... that feels strange. From all I know in the Atelier I came from, Sanguin Humors like me would have Flegmat Humors follow along with what we wanted. It doesn't make sense to me to push things we wouldn't want to do..."
Being human is strange sometimes.
Still, Tsumugi has plenty to say about humans and their games...
Roger grunts contemplatively. "I think games are most fun when we play them together, myself..."
A warning is given. To keep an eye out for the humans who make the games everyone else lives in. He tilts his head at the idea. Could people make games that are not fun to play for anyone but themselves? A curious thought, but he does not speak his mind over the main event.
The main event being in Yanagi's sorrow... and then that pointed question that has Roger flinch, feeling that frightful air that Kazusa put on when she confronted him over his attempts to confront her Homunculus in the real world.
"Um," Roger finally has it in him to speak, after Kanae relates her experiences.
There is nothing fun, or wholesome, about a Homunculus. Especially when this is someone incredibly close to someone he had a lot of fun with that day in the arcade. His face stiffens.
"We'll stop that Homunculus! ...And help Shinichi be, and do, who he wants to be!" This hangs, for a few moments, before...
"Um," he starts pressing his fingers together, "once we find a way into his Atelier."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa stares at Yuuki. "You haven't been able to find--the Homunculus? Is that the complication?" She brings a palm to her forehead to apply pressure. "One problem at a time," she mutters to herself.
But she nods as Yuuki mentions seeing other types of Persona users. "... okay." It's frankly not even the most concerning one she's seen.
There's the one where you bring a gun to your head that she still can't fathom.
"Not everything can be a fun game," Kazusa mutters under her breath, mostly into the thick fur collar of her coat. Especially not this.
She watches, as Tsumugi shifts, hands on Yanagi's shoulder, head resting in her hair... Okay, that's four times she's been here--if you include the time her Homunculus was--and that's twice now she's seen Tsumugi draping on someone. What the heck?
Tsumugi says it's fine how people shatter their chains, just so long as they do. "... right."
Kazusa crosses her arms as Tsumugi waxes eloquent about selflessness. Letting their own wants and needs be devoured... and a host who just gives freely of themselves.
She looks down, burying her face in that collar, trying to stifle a tremor at the memory of her own possession.
But she goes stock still at 'And then it will get much worse.'
They need to know the real him. And KAzusa thinks again of that moment she almost asked him something, but didn't. She barely knows anything about him.
... how can they possibly find out more now?
But Yanagi's cold stare causes Kazusa to flinch, and she quickly looks away. Kanae advises honesty, and Kazusa sighs. "... yeah. I'm not proud of it," she confesses. "I... haven't always been the best person." There's a flush on her cheeks as she makes that admission.
There's a reason she got the nickname Demon Queen, after all.
She didn't always enjoy a strong sibling bond with her younger brother, not in recent years. Though their bond might be one of the only ones that's strengthened since Kazusa's experience in the Cocoon.
She looks back. "... But I'm trying to change that." That's the desire her Transmutation was born from. "And I will help get him back." On that, at least, she's resolute. "No matter what he was like before... he... he doesn't deserve what's happening to him. I know it can't make up for what I've done, but... I refuse to stand by while someone else goes through what I went through."
But all that resoluteness drains out of her a moment later, as Kanae speaks of being got. OF being kissed. She doesn't look surprised. Rather the opposite. Her shoulders tense as she glances away. There's something heavy on the tip of her tongue, but she can't quite bring herself to say it. Not in front of all these people.
Kazusa glances at Roger and sighs as he reflects on how strange it is to push things onto others. "Yeah, well... humans don't have time to play all day, so..." She pinches the bridge of her nose a little. "Just... think of it as humans having to manage their stamina meters or something." Will a video game analogy help?
Well, it has to be better than snapping at him again.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
Oh! That's the one Saika and me talked to before.
Hooded green eyes roll towards Yuuki for a moment, regarding her balled-fist stance with mild indifference.
"Ah," is their sole response to Yanagi's explanation. Is it a negative reaction? A positive one? There's nothing really to say one way or the other, in that impassive expression.
Tsumugi Kujaku would certainly make an excellent poker player.
With those last kernels of wisdom shared with Roger, though, the disaffection of their attention turns to the subject of this particular meeting proper: Shinichi Nagisa. Yanagi takes this news the hardest; from most perspectives, it's only natural, something that would merit a sympathetic - empathetic - response, and indeed, the others react just so, offering sympathy or simply wearing their discomfort on their face and in the tension of their body language.
Tsumugi, however, remains indifferent to it all. The razor's edge in Yanagi's voice does draw their attention briefly, as she confronts Kazusa -- but as the latter insists they are taking strides to be better, to be a kinder person, that distance in their expression remains. That hand lifts towards theirs; theirs does not budge. So close, but still so much distance.
No. It's not until this point--
True freedom is hard to grasp after all, isn't it?
"It is."
That they finally speak.
They were right, after all. They seem to take no real pleasure in that idea, simply taking it as the matter of fact that it seems to be. Their hand tilts, slightly, against Yanagi's collar. An idle gesture, maybe. But if Yanagi wants that contact, regardless, the implication is clear:
"That's why we have to reach all the harder for it. You're still straining, even now."
It's only then that they finally look down, staring at the top of Yanagi's head beneath them. Their head lolls towards the right, resting their cheekbone against the side of their jeweler's head, voice subdued but clear as they wonder,
"Are you angry?"
At Kazusa? At herself?
It's a question that only lingers so long before their gaze returns to Kanae. As she asserts that she wants to help Shinichi, apparently despite the fact that his Homunculus preyed on her, Tsumugi's head cants against Yanagi's towards a cattish angle, eyes widening just slightly in their muted curiosity.
"And you still want to save him?" they wonder, and they seem fairly content with questioning the validity of this despite the fact that they're currently seated next to Shinichi's sister. It hardly stops them from musing, "A Homunculus is a reflection of what you could be. Is his because he doesn't know what he wants, I wonder?
"Or because what he wants frightens him?"
An echo of that question they asked before. And one that doesn't last particularly long before they simply lift their shoulders.
"Okay," Tsumugi abruptly declares, as if willing to accept the group's desire to save Shinichi despite their musings. It doesn't change their next question:
"How?"
How will they save him?
How will they uncover the REAL Shinichi Nagisa?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Kanae confirms that Shinichi's Homunculus is aggressive--that it forced a kiss on her, even. This doesn't surprise Yanagi, but it does nothing to improve her blue mood. She also confirms the timing, and her dark grey eyes slide away. "..."
Good for Kazusa that by the time she admits she'd been bullying Shinichi, Yanagi has settled down, more or less. Better still that she flinches and admits she's not proud of it. They've had a bit of a talk about that sort of thing before, haven't they? "Mmm."
She refuses to let someone else go through what she did, though. Yanagi's head tilts slightly to one side, mostly locked in place as she is, and she sniffles again.
'For family,' Yuuki says. Yanagi looks up at her, teary face briefly confused. "How did you...?" But then she falls silent. Perhaps Yuuki will as well.
Roger echoes the chain of declarations that they'll stop the Homunculus and help Shinichi--once they find his Atelier. Yanagi fiddles with the hem of her sleeve, then peeks sidelong at Tsumugi. When they speak of her strain... her expression softens with a little smile, and she leans a little into their touch. Clearly she doesn't mind their draping--quite the opposite.
She doesn't yet weigh in on the matter of Shinichi. Instead, she busies herself getting her tears under control, flagrantly using the sleeves of that dazzling pajama to clean her face. Tsumugi is having their say, and she wants to hear the answers, too.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Kanae is up for helping Yuuki, too--but she wonders...
Well, it's fine. It's not like Kanae didn't just imply a fairly close relationship with the Homunculus herself. And Roger... Roger is almost painfully sweet as far as Kanae is concerned, evidenced by the way she winces in his direction as he talks about forcing people and playing games.
"Right," Kanae agrees with Roger. "We'll save him."
Kanae looks to Kazusa as Kazusa sighs. "It'd be better if you'd never done it," she says, "But second best is not doing it now. Right?"
What she went through... Hm. "Yeah..."
But Kazusa ddoesn't sound surprised--and Kanae figures she knows why. She doesn't weigh in on the video game analogies. Instead... She wonders how Yanagi feels, too.
"I don't know," Kanae admits of what Shinichi wants. "If he turns out that the 'real' guy is a total asshole... then I'll walk away. But being an asshole isn't enough reason to get replaced by some kind of monster." Pause. Is that too direct?
Kanae looks to Yanagi, then. How?
"..."
"I have a plan," Kanae says. "...First... I told him I'd go out with him, like he wanted. The Homunculus, I mean. That'll keep him off at least most of the other girls, I hope. Give him less to regret when he's back, maybe. ...And it's not like things weren't... over, with my ex-boyfriend, after... this."
"But that's not how I stop him for good. That's--"
She thinks how to put it. "We're going to stalk him," she puts it simply. "I know he volunteers at a hospital; I know where he lives. I'm going to find the hospital he volunteers at and ask all about him if I can. If I can't, I'm going to go in the Dark Hour and get at their employment records of him. I'm going to ask people around school and learn more. And I'm going to find out everything I can."
"I know some things already. I figure, the Homunculus can tell me some things, if only by... absence, I guess? Like... in ikebana. 'Empty space' isn't just empty; it's its own thing."
"Anyway Kazusa and I are working on that. We're reaching out to others still--like to you. ...And we'll put it all together, and find the Atelier."
"He's a monster," Kanae concludes. "So I'm going to Hunt out his lair and take the fight there. Anything you can give us to help... We'll take it. And if you need some kind of payment, we'll put it together."
"Honestly... I've put myself on the line here. If we don't stop the Homunculus, I'm in big trouble. But this is what I believe in. I believe... This power I've been given, this Wild Card... I have it for a reason."
"But, um..." She looks at Yanagi. "...Should I be going on like this...?" When she's so obviously distressed, that is.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"Oh! That much I know all about," Roger says to Kazusa's framing of it. "Umm. Maybe not 'stamina meter' so much as... 'hungry,' 'sleepy,'" etcetera, etcetera. He's from an existential state where that wasn't a thing. It's all still novel, even having had as long as he has to get used to it.
'A Homunculus is a reflection of what you could be. Is his because he doesn't know what he wants, I wonder? Or because what he wans frightens him?'
Roger is quiet, as a mind bearing a breadth and depth of feelings he wasn't originally meant to inhabit is left to consider as to if Taro Nakata was about on board with what the Homunculus wanted to be. He felt like he was the last Sanguin Humor standing, sometimes, like the only one fully aware something was wrong.
...
It kind of feels like he knew the Homunculus more than Taro Nakata.
...
He takes a look over to Kazusa, at her resolve.
"...With the Atelier I came from, I really had no idea at all just how bad things were in the human world surrounding it. After getting to see that for myself from outside an Atelier..."
"I still don't want a Homunculus to decide for him!" Roger snorts anew, and he bumps into something. There is a moment of panic as he turns around quickly to steady whatever that thing is. Last thing he needs to be right now is a boar in a china shop. (That is not how the saying goes. But, it's close enough.)
He listens in as Kanae talks about the plan, from the framework of being a Hunter. As Roger steadies whatever nonsense he about created in his carelessness, he turns back around.
"Okay! It sounds like you might already have leads for their Thread.... um." Roger tilts his head in thought. "I don't know if the 'hospital' might be an Eye you'd need to bring it, though..."
Beat.
"Oh! I went to a hospital once after eating something I shouldn't have," Roger says as if it's an ordinary event, and in retrospect it's more miraculous he hasn't found multiple ways to endanger his mundane body out of sheer ignorance and carelessness (yet). "...There's a lot of rooms for people who are really sick or hurt, too..."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa has been... tense, throughout. There are things she has not said, despite Kanae having said them so openly, and things she can't quite hide about the tension in her back. Being called out for her bullying doesn't do much to relax her, even if she can recognize (now) that it's deserved.
Tsumugi remains something of a mystery. Kazusa glances at them as they finally speak. True freedom... Tsumugi made it sound so easy the last time she was here. And yet...
'Are you angry?' Kazusa glances at Yanagi and then away, awaiting that verdict. A small break for her, if Yanagi's settled down since.
A reflection of what you could be... Kazusa's frown deepens just a little bit at that. "It's 'a' version, sure, but so what? It's not him. Besides, I was a terrible person and people still came for me. If he's secretly some kind of jerk, then... we'll figure that out later."
She nods quietly to Kanae as she speaks of second best. "... yeah." She can't take what she--or her Homunclus--did, but she's doing her best to move forward.
She'd say more about her experiences, but she's not sure she wants to just dump the news that 'your brother is being tormented' on Yanagi right now.
'I told him I'd go out with him, like he wanted.'
Kazusa blinks and turns just a little too fast to look at Kanae again. She immediately winces, and tries to bury her face in the fur collar to hide it. "... that's..." But she and her boyfriend are done. "... mm."
Well, it's not like she wasn't thinking of something similar, the other day--trying to keep the Homunculus' attention on her rather than on Ryuji.
Back to stalking again. "Could you please not say it like that?" she mutters. She clears her throat and speaks up. "I've been compiling a list of hospitals in the area to check so we can start narrowing them down."
She makes a small face as Kanae brings up Ikebana but doesn't comment.
"Then it's a hunger meter, whatever," Kazusa says with an annoyed sigh at Roger offers an alternative framing. "The point is... humans kind of have a lot to worry about--we don't have time for everything."
But Roger resolves not to let the Homunculus decide. At least she can agree with him on that. But then-- "Roger-san, be careful. This is a boutique, everything's expensive." At last she's not snapping at him, for once.
"Even if it's not the Eye, someone there might know him well enough to give us a lead on it." But Roger went to a hospital once and Kazusa just stares. "You..."
she lapses into silence for a moment. And then she presses her palm into her forehead again to apply pressure there. There is a long, tired sigh. Later, she's saving that for later.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
It's 'a' version, sure, but so what? It's not -him-.
The curiosity widening Tsumugi Kujaku's eyes dissipates until their eyelids half-hood their stare with that detached indifference once more.
"People see the world the way they wish it was. In the end, it's no different with other people."
Those oblique words are all Tsumugi sees fit to weigh in on the matter, as if that's as far as their interest extends; as Kanae more or less asserts the same idea, and Roger declares his intent against the Homunculus in particular, Tsumugi seems content to leave it at that. As if, perhaps, their curiosity is satisfied, whether the answer was what they hoped or not, and that is good enough.
They just regard Yanagi below them for a few quiet moments as Roger desperately juggles with a piece of fragile boutique goods.
And they don't even so much glance up at the poor Humor-turned-Persona-User's struggle as they note to him, off-handedly,
"Four hundred and fifteen thousand yen if you break it."
How can they know how much the piece is worth! They didn't even look!!
Regardless of the myriad mysteries of Tsumugi, ultimately they only turn that vivid green gaze slowly back upwards once more when Kanae starts to lay down her very risky, slightly self-sacrificial plan. Behind glasses and thick black lashes, Tsumugi watches her with that placid stare. They remain silent for a few seconds, perhaps quietly assessing her idea. And then:
"So you're a Hunter who uses yourself as bait," they wonder, though there's a lack of an interrogative inflection at the end there. A second passes. And then:
"Mm. It might work decently. It might fail horribly. But it's interesting."
which
is kind of praise
if delivered in the most deadpan and morbid way
Still; Kanae expresses concerns over Yanagi, and wonders if they should continue, and this prompts a bemused look to grace Tsumugi's fair features as they look her way, dark brows lifting.
"Why shouldn't you?" they ask, as if there's no possible reason they can see why Kanae would have to stop -- as if the very idea was baffling. They lean forward, settling more of their body weight against Yanagi.
"If Sa-ya didn't want you to, you wouldn't have even started."
As if there was never any question.
As if they had every confidence Yanagi Nagisa was the type of person to take firm hold of what she wants, and reject everything else.
Which is why, immediately after? Tsumugi moves on towards, in their mind, a more important matter: "We can supply aid when it comes to dealing with the Homunculus in the Atelier. In exchange, we get first right to any of the materials it leaves behind." The same deal they offered Hazuki, once upon a time.
"Anything more than that requires different negotiations. Help has value; value shouldn't be wasted."
And this, too, is said shamelessly. Their head tilts. They seem to regard Yanagi for a few, quiet moments.
And then they look up again.
"Sa-ya will decide what other help we'll give. And for what price."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
When Tsumugi gives Kanae that nonplussed reaction, Yanagi gives another little smile. They're quite good at cheering her up, it seems, despite (or perhaps because of?) their deadpan demeanor. She continues to lean back, a counter to Tsumugi's body; maybe it's a bit like a weighted blanket. It's comforting, regardless. By now, her tears are mere tracks of damp salt on her pale cheeks.
"You should. It's your convictions. You don't need to treat me like I'm made of glass. Rather, I'd prefer you didn't," she confirms to Kanae quietly, but with more steel than before. "I hate it."
An empty space... Yanagi's eyelashes sink. In other words, the gap between what's said aloud. She's familiar. And it does seem like Kanae has a plan--whether it's a wise or safe plan is not really Yanagi's concern--but if she can't figure out Shinichi's Thread and Eye to access his Atelier, it'll all come to naught.
Kazusa seems determined to pay her rescue forward, too. People came to save her even though she was rotten, so she wants to save Shinichi even if he might secretly be rotten. She really is trying to change, Yanagi reflects--even though it's hard. She can understand that.
A display rattles when Roger bumps into it; it may as well have never happened, for all the attention she pays it. So much the better for Roger, maybe? (Too bad Tsumugi is paying attention. Even though they weren't looking.)
And speaking of Tsumugi, at the tail of their offer...
Sa-ya will decide what other help we'll give. And for what price.
A pause.
"...Shinichi wasn't always interested in nursing. Or sad. Or a pushover," Yanagi says quietly. "He loved lacrosse, too. Very active and energetic, with lots of friends. Well-liked in the Mikage-cho neighborhood where he grew up. If he's changed so dramatically... it's probably because of the death of his sister, three years ago." She criss-crosses her long, nimble fingers. "She was born with a terminal condition, you see, so their parents always paid more attention to her than him. The two of them were close when they were young... or at least, I thought so... so it was probably fine at first, but... over time, as she grew more ill and feeble, and more care and attention had to go to her, he probably became more resentful."
She stares out a nearby window at nothing. "It was on Christmas Day when he visited her at Mikage Hospital, after their parents had spent Christmas Eve with her and not him. He lost his temper and said what he really felt--that she was a burden on the family, and if she's going to die young anyway, couldn't she go ahead and die already?"
Another pause.
"...Shortly thereafter, she had an episode and was rushed to the emergency room. She was declared dead soon after. I thought he would have been happy and relieved that his wish finally came true, but when he crossed paths with her again three years later, on December the seventh, he looked on her with terror in his eyes."
Yanagi shuts her eyes briefly. Kanae and the others suspect the hospital where Shinichi volunteers may be his Eye, but they don't know where it is. If it's where brother and sister crossed paths, then...
"University Hospital, in Shibuya, Tokyo," she murmurs. "That's where he saw a ghost."
She gazes at Kanae and the others steadily. Almost expressionlessly.
"The ghost named Yanagi Nagisa."
No price is yet named, despite all the help in the form of information given, which might be the most frightening part of this morbid tale.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Roger doesn't want a Homunculus to decide for Shinichi; it seems a simple wish, a simple desire to Kanae, but there's something pure in it, too. He's helping, at least. An what he says about a hospital--
"...Aaah..."
Kanae doesn't look back at Kazusa at her reaction. She can deal with that later. Instead, she focuses on, "Nope. We should remember what we're doing--we're going to violate his privacy to save his life. If we forget that, if we pretend we're just doing something normal... I don't think that's fair."
Beat, "Besides, it's funny when you react like that."
Someone might know...
But Tsumugi makes an assertion, it sounds to Kanae. And Kanae nods. "...I don't really have anything other than my 'self'," Kanae opines. "So if I need to risk something... that's what it has to be."
It might work. It might fail. "Yeah." She knows exactly how it could fail.
But why shouldn't she? Kanae blinks once--and then looks between the two of them, Yanagi and Tsumugi. "Oh." That seems truthy to her--all the more when Yanagi chimes in for herself. "OK," she says then, when Yanagi confirms it. "Then, I'll keep going. I don't really have the time to be gentle if I don't have to be."
But... she'll decide. And the price?
Yanagi explains, and it all becomes clear. ...Kanae says nothing at first; she doesn't want to interrupt the information that they need, and she doesn't want to accidentally treat Yanagi in a way she's going to hate.
December, the 7th...
"..."
"Thanks," Kanae says first. She has to have manners. ...Why? Don't worry about it. Either way--Yanagi just said she hates being treated like she's made of glass. So Kanae very, very intently does not say she's sorry for her. It might be visible in the way her expression schools to nothing at all.
There's a lot else she wants to know. But...
"Yeah. I see. That's going to help a lot. And I think you're right about 'why', it adds up with everything."
"..."
There's so much she wants to say and ask, but...
"...I'm not going to ask how you feel. If you want to tell me, you'll tell me. That's how it's been with everything else so far with you today. You say what you want to say, and don't say waht you don't."
"But I will ask..."
"What do you want in return?"
"...I don't know how it feels to have a brother or a sister. I barely remember how it feels to have parents. So I don't really have a place to talk about 'family' in the first place. But I've committed to this path. So... I'll do what I have to do."
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"Um," the ascended Sanguin Humor shrinks under Kazusa's staring, "I'm okay now..."
'Four hundred and fifteen thousand yen if you break it.'
"...That is a very high number," Roger says in an uncharacteristically low and quiet voice. He knows how many games of Night Parade that buys at the arcade he works at. That is a lot of games. He steps away from the display piece slowly, like it could be a living thing that would rip out his jugular. (the jugular is what exists of a wallet)
Where Tsumugi offers their aid, Roger looks over to Kanae with a nod.
"They've helped before. They've even taken away what was left of a Homunculus," though he starts tilting his head in introspection again, "even though I don't know what anyone would want with that..."
It's spoken with all the tone of someone wondering what anyone would want with the equivalent of any manner of prefix-hazard by-product one could imagine, ignorant of whatever greater value there might be to highly specialized industrial fields.
He's looking up as Yanagi speaks of Shinichi, and a sad tale. For all anyone knows, Roger has never really experienced the concept of 'loss' first- or even second-hand. What is a beginning, or an ending, for an uplifted Shadow that never really had any concept of anything other than their base desires reflected off of those of human minds and hearts? Especially one patterned strongly after ambitions, desires, goals, or needs?
The silence says everything, in terms of his ability to process it.
Only just this: "She had the same name..."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa just can't get a read on Tsumugi. It's kind of infuriating sometimes. "The world doesn't care about how we wish it was. And there's no way I'm leaving him locked in that Cocoon for any longer than I have to. That's what I've decided to use my power for."
She glances at Kanae as Tsumugi renders judgement on the plan. She's definitely got a few concerns with it herself, but she'll bring those up privately.
But Tsumugi names their price. Kazusa studies the proprietor for a long moment. "... that's basically what it took for you to come help deal with mine, wasn't it?" She remembers the conversation she had with Tsumugi before. "Any chance you feel like explaining what materials you're collecting?" And she also remembers how some questions were left unanswered.
But Yanagi doesn't want to be treated like she's made of glass. Then... maybe Kazusa can say the thing she has in mind, if it comes down to it. She'd rather not if she doesn't ahve to though.
It's still a painful memory for her, after all.
Kazusa is determined to pay her rescue forward. Kasumi told her the night before that she thought that everyone that had come to rescue her was her friend. They weren't (and Kazusa said as much.) And that only makes her more determined to proceed.
But Yanagi explains about Shinichi and his ill sister. The sister isn't named... But, what he said at the hospital, his 'real' feelings... Kazusa lets out a long, slow breath through her nose, looking down and burying her face in the collar of her coat.
She's lashed out that way before. Not really for the same reason, but... maybe he was hurting and just didn't know how to let it out?
Hopefully she'll get a chance to ask the real Shinichi about it. Either way, she files the name 'Mikage Hospital' away, just in case.
But it is herself that Yanagi is describing. Kazusa's silent for a moment as she absorbs all of that. "University Hospital..." she murmurs, mostly to herself. She takes her phone out and makes a couple of notes. "Thanks," she offers softly.
Kanae makes a point about the gravity of their undertaking, and that they can't treat it as something normal. "Okay, fine, I guess you have a point..."
'Besides, it's funny when you react like that.'
There's a quiet huff. "So glad I can be entertaining to you," she grumbles.
Roger is okay now. "Good. Please keep it that way."
Once Roger voices it, though, Kazusa is also curious what they want with the remnants of a Homunculus.
And then she finds herself pinching the bridge of her nose at Roger's final observation. "Roger-san..." she says in a tight, controlled voice.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
That's a very high number.
"It's a number that binds things with value. Humans often convince themselves they need that."
Once more with those distant, abstract musings, Tsumugi comes and goes from the conversation as they please; just the same, once they make their declaration that Yanagi will determine what valuation to demand from their guests and clientele, they once more drift off, only stirring when Kazusa asks that particular question she asked them once before. They look up, regarding her thoughtfully for a second.
One hand drifts up, cupping Yanagi's chin during that brief pause before she spins the tragic tale of Shinichi and Yanagi Nagisa. Bright green eyes stare into their dark, lead-hued counterparts, as if the simple eye contact could convey some deeper meaning.
And then they shift, and that warmth and gravity-laden weight abandons Yanagi to provide her a brief feeling of weightlessness as the cool air of the boutique brushes her back...
just before a weighty overcoat is slung over her shoulders like it was always meant to be there.
Tsumugi, coatless, descends the handful of steps on the staircase they and Yanagi had been residing on. Thumbs hooking into side straps of their corset, they start to walk toward Kazusa, the heavy -thump!- -thump!- -thump!- of their bootfalls filling the boutique. More and more of that distance is closed, stare never straying from Kazusa's, and when they're close enough?
Tsumugi leans in, lifts a gloved hand, and then--
points at their eyes with their index and middle fingers.
Before turning and pointing them at Kazusa's a second later.
"That."
??????
And, apparently deciding that was a sufficient enough answer to her question, Tsumugi just -- drifts away like a heavy-booted specter, towards the glass display cases of Peacock Silk.
Speaking of specters -- it's about now that Yanagi relays her own, particular tale of a very fateful haunting. During it, Tsumugi seems to busy themself with inventorying the contents of their store - maybe checking to see if Roger broke anything...?! - and seems (seems) to pay no particular attention to this sad and powerfully tragic tale of Yanagi's past. And yet...
And yet...
As Yanagi talks about the present? That fateful day, December the 7th, when Shinichi Nagisa beheld the spirit of the dead with his own eyes?
University Hospital, in Shibuya, Tokyo. That's where he saw a ghost.
Tsumugi glances over their shoulder, regarding her with a peculiar, unreadable stare.
The ghost named Yanagi Nagisa.
"..."
And quietly, they set down a bracelet that they had been cradling between gloved fingers.
They say nothing, however, for now. After all, this is Yanagi's story to tell - Yanagi's price to exact. They almost fade into the background, as the others react. Take what value they all can from it.
She had the same name...
"That's why she's a ghost."
Which might make it startling how they're suddenly just behind and off to the side of Roger, leaned against the wall, thumbs hooked in straps, staring with that dead stare at the Sanguin as they make that abrupt declaration.
Hands lift.
Fingers wiggle.
"OooOOo~."
And they lilt out that spooky ghost sound without a singular ounce of energy to speak of.
Their statement has its own important meaning.
... The rest is just gratis.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi appreciates that Kanae only has to ask once, and immediately respects her desires. That goes a long way in raising her estimation of--the Wild Card, it finally sinks in that she said. She stares at her for a long moment, until at last she nods.
"That's right," she says simply to only saying what she wants to say. That's the way she changed after she Awakened--with some help and support from Peacock Silk.
Not knowing what Kazusa wants to say, Yanagi can't prompt her to say it. However, even if she holds back for now, perhaps they can have that conversation later, on another day. Right now, she gazes into Tsumugi's brilliantly green eyes when they tilt her chin, and hold their coat tight when they drape it upon her. For a moment, she follows them with her eyes; then she focuses back on Kanae and the others.
What does she want?
"I..." Yanagi considers this for a scattering of seconds. Then her eyes narrow. "...want to handle that Homunculus in my own way. Keep doing what you're doing, but don't interfere. That's all."
A price doesn't need to be monetary. The staff of Peacock Silk have no need to worry about such trivial things. There are plenty of mundane customers who'll hand them money hand over fist for their couture goods.
No, the price Yanagi sets is freedom. She has no doubt that Tsumugi would approve, and across the room, she meets their eyes again. Sees them set down that bracelet. A lovely piece. She made it only a couple of months ago.
Then Roger observes that Yanagi Nagisa and Yanagi Nagisa have the same name.
Yanagi stares at him for a second--before she bursts out into giggles, some rosiness finally rising in her cheeks. When Tsumugi moves in to terrorize the poor pig-man, she claps her hands in delight with them both.
"My, so she did, Roger," she says affectionately. "So~ she~ did. <3"
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Spooooky ghost.
Kanae lifts an eyebrow at the scary moment, but looks back to Yanagi anyway. When she nods, Kanae nods. ...She wishes she could be like that, for a moment--just saying what she wants, instead of...
But Yanagi wants to handle it in her own way. Kanae looks at her thoughtfully. It's not money; it's not anything she has to sacrifice herself.
"So long as we can save the 'real' Shinichi," Kanae says, thinking about her current 'boyfriend', the Homunculus, "...Then what happens to that thing isn't something important to me the way it is to you. I can accept that."
The same name...
Heh.
She smiles at Kazusa, though. "I deserve a little fun in all this," she decides. "It's rough otherwise."
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
'That's why she's a ghost.'
Roger's eyes widen as he unleashes a squealy 'eeee' and jumps at the sudden spooky Tsumugi interruption. He flops over on the ground, one leg up, exaggeratedly, sprawled out.
...
...
...
...It sounds like Yanagi's feeling better, at least.
(No, Roger will not require another hospital trip.)
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
A question is asked. Tsumugi, instead of answering, gets up and stalks over closer. Kazusa tenses, standing up a little straighter. Their jaw tightens from the pain in their back but she stays silent.
Her eyes narrow a little as Tsumu draws ever closer, and then...
Points at their eyes, and then at hers.
Kazusa blinks, her brow furrowing in confusion. She doesn't say anything until tsumugi ambles away and then huffs quietly, looking to the side. "... Tch. If you didn't want to say you could've just said so."
Maybe they can have that conversation sometime. For now, Kazusa listens to Yanagi's price--to deal with the Homunculus in her own way. Well, it's her brother, after all... She glances to Kanae to see her reaction.
Yanagi can deal with the Homunculus in the way she deems fit, as long as they still get to rescue the 'real' Shinichi. "Fine by me. I'm with Fuyuki-san on that."
She stares at Kanae for a long moment and then sighs,. "... tell me about it," she says, by way of agreement. "Then... be amused or whatever."