2026-08-20: A Touching Reunion
- Log: 2026-08-20 A Touching Reunion
- Cast: Yanagi Nagisa, Shinichi Nagisa
- Where: Aoyama-Itchome Station
- OOC Date: August 20, 2026
- IC Date: December 28, 2012
- Summary: Yanagi approaches the Homunculus that is taking over her brother Shinichi's body with important information--and an offer.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It's that liminal time between Christmas and New Year's where people are wrapping up the celebrations from one and preparing for the celebrations of the other. Peacock Silk may or may not be joining them on the whole, but today, there is something else they're doing.
Yanagi is the face of it for right now, in her fur-lined, hooded red cloak and ice blue velvet dress that sparkles with silver woven between the threads. A matching silver semi-circlet crowns her head, with beads of white crystal, serene aquamarine, and bloody garnet on the side clips that hold her long, wavy hair out of her delicately made-up face. Garnet likewise studs her ears and throat, while crystal and aquamarine dangle at her wrists. White leather ankle boots adorn her feet, stabilizing them along with the polished walking cane she uses.
She comes to a stop just outside the gates to Shujin Academy and pulls her hood off to gaze up the school building. Her expression is neutral; she looks to one side, then the other, and begins to tap-tap-tap in a certain direction.
If she isn't alone, then anyone with her is keeping out of sight as they follow. That is, of course, the point.
Her pace is unhurried. She knows where she's going, or rather, she can sense her target. This isn't a supernatural space, but she's a Navigator, and Homunculi give off a certain stink even in the real world that Persona Users can be particularly sensitive to. As such, when one such being is partway through his daily run, he'll encounter her halfway through a back street, calm and unruffled as she blocks his way.
"Hmmm..." She considers him, expression unchanging. "So it's true."
Not that she doubted Kanae, Kazusa and the others--indeed, she and the rest of Peacock Silk already took a quick look into Shinichi's Atelier to see the state of it--but some things you really do need to see with your own eyes.
She tilts her head.
"Who are you?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
The chill of the morning seeped through his red Shujin track suit, but Shinichi Nagisa didn't even seem to feel it. Perhaps that's because the blood was pumping. Or perhaps that's because there was a slight disconnect between the body and spirit.
His breath fogged, he made his way down the streets. Several people who recognized him from his early morning run waved at him as he went by- more, who did recognize him, hesitated.
The reason why?
Is clear when he doesn't swerve for someone in his way, instead hip checking one of a group of young men who were going slow to socialize some, talking about some TV show or another. "Your left."
He says coldly, only after he's knocked one of them down, like it was their fault for not seeing him coming.
They look at him for a moment in shock, like 'what's your problem'? Before deciding against actually vocalizing it, instead reaching down to check on him and help him up.
Such incidents were WHY some people had stopped greeting him in the morning.
In Shujin, he was a paragon of 'masculinity' for his accomplishments in a short time on the field, how he'd transitioned from consummate introvert to raging extrovert who not only seemed to know everyone- but almost all guys bowed to him when it came to social dominance. Feelings were more mixed elsewhere, and for good reason when they only saw him at his worst.
Yanagi can feel him coming, perhaps even sense the sickly smell which is the spike of perverse glee from that moment where he knocked that guy down, he loops down the street towards Shujin. His feet stabbed at the concrete at his normal pace.
Then he began to slow, as he spied Yanagi. Then began at a more sedate pace, putting his hands behind his head like he was letting himself cool down at the site.
"Took the words right out of my mouth, 'nee-san'." He says, unsmilingly, at the idea that it's 'true'.
The question caused his eyes to contract fractionally, almost like she were in the danger zone even for questioning it, but then, it eases off like- the question glanced off of whatever identity the creature within had tried to shore up, but only barely, "Heh." He smirked now, "Don't you recognize your own otouto?"
Well, doesn't she?
Some behaviors do hit close to home, perhaps- as being similar to how he was back then, amped up to all the worst extremes and excesses, but- this definitely isn't the same boy who went ghost white and fled when he saw her at the hospital that day.
"So, you lived, huh? ...How about that?" He says, with a sense of dark humor, "Haha- so come on, get on with it. Why show yourself now? You need money, or some shit? The folks you're leeching off of threw you out or started getting on your case about rent?"
He grins viciously, "My last chance to handle this on my own before you go back to Mom and Dad for the tearful reunion which ends in you asking for them to empty their savings? Tell me if I'm getting warmer..."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi isn't there to see the thing in Shinichi's body ram into one of those young men; it wouldn't especially bother her even if she had, beyond the context of it happening. Her chief concern is the one slowing down in front of her, hands behind its head. She does see that dangerous look in its eyes, as well as the smirk that follows. It's the question that gets an outward reaction, though.
"Hmmm..." Doesn't she? There are some similarities, she'll admit. Yanagi smiles. It doesn't reach her dark eyes. "I recognize something, anyway."
Her head tilts the other way at the creature's accusations. "Hm? Oh, no. When it comes to money, I'm doing just fine. I have no desire or intention to go see my mom or dad. I'm doing just fine without them, and I'm sure they're doing just fine without me."
She holds her head upright. "But it looks like my little brother isn't. And that's why I'm here.
"To see the Homunculus stealing his body for myself."
Yanagi's changed a lot since the one in Shinichi's memories too. Though her body remains as fragile--and the fact that it's only as fragile as three years ago is thanks to Kotodama and the power of NWO science--she never would have been this blunt or unyielding before. Despite the Homunculus' aura of menace, so potent that even normal people may feel uneasy, she stands her ground with her calm unchanged, both hands folded atop the oddly trigger-shaped head of her cane.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"Apparently all that time you spent in a hospital bed being a useless lump fried your brain." He retorts, to 'recognizing something'. But she does surprise him when she refutes that idea that she's here for money, "Damn right they are. So why're you here then?"
'But it looks like my little brother isn't. And that's why I'm here.'
"The fu-"
'To see the Homunculus stealing his body for myself.'
Yanagi is way different, different from his memory, different from the memories the Homunculus is accessing. He's caught flat-footed by this.
But it doesn't make him any less dangerous. Surging forward, he seizes her by both upper arms unless she tries to do anything to stop him, hauling her up to the one of the planters on the side of the school as if he were moving an overlarge plushy from a carnival, and pressing her hips and lower body against the concrete, and the upper one bent backwards uncomfortably.
"Go fuck yourself! I'm Shinichi- SHINICHI NAGISA!" He shouts loudly in her face before lowering it into a menacing threat. "I could break you in goddamn half for this bullshit you're spewing. And nobody will even miss your ass. You're a nobody. A nothing. A ZERO! A NEGATIVE! All you do is take and take and take and give NOTHING back to ANYONE!"
He says, the timbre of his voice rising and falling in an uncomfortable ebb and flow of his anger.
"You don't let ghosts stick around... you exorcise them," he says as his grip clenches down uncomfortably. "So give me one fucking reason why I shouldn't make sure you stay dead this time, you sickly little bitch?"
Despite all this, Yanagi will sense one thing above all else. He's rattled. The last thing he expected was a family member to come out and accuse him of being what he was. The absolute last thing.
Even if he's physically overpowering her right now, because of course- he's also scared- no terrified.
And all this boisterous bravado is some stupid show to try and cover that up and assert what little control they can, through physical violence, just like so many boys and men learn to do.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi does nothing to stop the Homunculus. She can't, really; Shinichi's always been healthy and athletic, the opposite of her. (Well. She tried to be athletic for a time. She still goes swimming sometimes for the exercise. Athleticism is just not in the cards for her, though.) She does cry out reflexively when he grabs her and slams her against the planters, but for all that it's clearly rattled, she's just as clearly not. She squints in the face of his screaming, and she's unable to move, but she's otherwise unfazed. In fact--
"Hmm... You seem to really hate the idea of taking and giving nothing back, but..." She tilts her head. "Isn't that what you're doing to your host? What all you Homunculi do, by your nature? If not, what exactly do you plan on giving to him after taking his entire life?"
Her body twitches as the Homunculus' grip tightens. However, Yanagi has lived with pain her entire life, and now lives despite it. It holds her physically in place, but despite the threats and insults heaped on her, her spirit remains unmoved.
In fact, she smiles.
"Are you aware that there are professional and amateur Homunculus hunters in this city? Ones who know about you right now? Ones who plan on exorcising you?" Though her grey eyes never leave its blue, her head tilts the other way. "I think you probably don't. You'd be a little less brazen if you knew you were being hunted, I should expect." She holds her head upright. "What do you think of that?"
Unlike the Homunculus' screaming bravado, her calm confidence is 100% the real thing. After all, she knows what she's talking about--and she knows that if things escalate too far for her to handle, Tsumugi and the others will come to her aid.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
It's how unfazed she is, despite physical dominance that really gets to the Homunculus. After all, so much of the mask its wearing is being physically dominant and self-assured because of it.
And the point she makes.
"I'm-"
It's like he almost says it again, but then doesn't, as the hypocrisy is thrown in his face. Stunned, his grip slackens slightly, before he takes a moment, reeling from this just being known.
"...Let's pretend for a second there's something to this little delusion of yours." He whispers, softer, but still no less threatening- just, more grasping, grasping around in memories for some way to recover, "Play pretend, like how we did when we were kids. Yeah. If it were the case. Then- he should be so lucky. You know what a fucking loser he was? He had nothing to offer the world other than being some sad sack who let everyone walk all over his ass. Now- now he'll be someone people all respect when he walks into the room."
Now his gaze turns into one of confusion, then shifts into barely contained anger as she mentions Homunculus hunters. He looks sideways, like he's looking to be sure one isn't around right now, ready to ambush him.
That this wasn't all some trick on her part for that to happen.
"... ... ... Who?" He asks, finally wary, paranoid, "Anyone comes at me, I'll put 'em in the ground. So give me some names."
He glares at her, his grip not quite released but, at least allowing her more freedom of movement, "You owe me that much, right, 'Sis'?"
It's a dangerous prospect, after all, maybe he comes after them in real life, or maybe his Shadow does so in the Dark Hour.
If he knows.
But he seems to really be on that give and take thing. Like Yanagi has taken from him- so what does she have to offer now? If she has something that can entice him, then she's no longer 'fully' useless in his twisted logic, right?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It's easy to be self-assured if you can cow others into submission with sheer physical force. Against someone like Yanagi who fears neither death nor pain of death, it's useless. And considering what she knows... And she does know, if that amused 'oh, come now' look in her eyes as the Homunculus tries to bluff her is any indication. At least the amusement soon fades as it calls him a loser, a sad sack who let everyone walk all over him.
She's silent, inexpressive, for a moment. In that moment, the Homunculus looks around warily, then takes the bait.
"Well... Me, for one!" She smiles brightly up at it. "You didn't think it was a coincidence that I know what you are, I'm sure? I started when I was parasitized by one of your kind. As you can see, it didn't succeed."
Yanagi might be very different compared to the Yanagi in Shinichi's memories, but she is still unmistakably human.
It tries to demand names--claim that she owes it. Eyes wide, she replies, "Oh, no. I don't owe 'you' anything. I might owe 'Shinichi Nagisa' something, but you aren't Shinichi Nagisa, are you?"
Her smile fades again, but she continues to stare it down.
"Not yet."
There is a pregnant pause that Yanagi soon aborts.
"So let's do a little give-and-take of our own," she states. "Are you interested?"
If it is--and she expects it will be--she'll propose the two of them head over to some local cafe to sit and have a civil discussion over drinks, both to change locations and to calm down. (Even though it's only the Homunculus that needs to calm down.) She'll walk under her own power, if with the help of her cane, the entire way, never asking the thing in her brother's body for help.
And once the two are seated and have their orders...
...Yanagi makes it wait a little longer by savoring a long sip of her hot cocoa. With marshmallows!
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
That 'oh, come now' look in her eyes takes a lot of the remaining wind out of his sails. How does- how could anybody know? How could anybody know?!?
It validates everything she's saying subsequently. If people can know what he is, they can hunt him. If they can hunt him, they can kill him. And no matter how powerful he thinks he is- if he can't see where the shot will be coming from... what can he even do?
"It..." His eyebrows furrow some as she says that she was once parasitized by a Homunculus, and the strange changeling like creature sees trying to integrate this into its cunning survival strategy, as he speaks.
"... didn't, huh? That's a real shame." He murmurs, like she would have been better off, that way. "How'd you survive it?"
Yanagi doesn't seem human, to Shinichi- to the Homunculus' view of her. She seems like something unnatural. Like her brush with losing who she was to a Homunculus had turned her into something unflappable.
Something that he can't parse, or read, or gain control over. Sure he could kill her but- then, what happens next? What if these Homunculus hunters find the body? What if they're tracking him even now?
"I told you I'm-!" He growls, frustrated, at being told once again he's not, before cutting himself off and blinking his eyes shut, then leveling his gaze upon her again, "Sure. Guess I can spare some time."
'Shinichi' sits, Yanagi has convinced him. She has the power here, even if he can't acknowledge it. Right now in front of him, he's got a cup of Black Coffee. As if it were some 'manly' option in comparison.
"So how'd you survive? And, why- talk to me at all, much less act like you want to help? Wouldn't you be holding a grudge against... them?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Is it?" Yanagi wonders without rancor on the matter of a real shame. The question, though, prompts a mischievous little giggle. "That's my secret! <3"
Which might be annoying to the Homunculus, but he can deal. She clearly doesn't care. Likewise, she doesn't care about his protests; the only thing she cares about is that he agrees to her suggestion to sit down and talk.
Once the two have done precisely that, Yanagi takes a brief moment longer to enjoy her drink before setting it down and delicately dabbing her pink lips with a napkin. "Hmmm?" She blinks at him. "A grudge? It was an unpleasant experience, but no, I don't hold it against your kind. You're so desperate to live that you'd even invade a broken, useless body like mine if it got you a chance at even the twinkling of an eye of being 'human.' That's very sad, really."
She hooks a finger around her mug's handle. "Of course, I suspect part of my Homunculus's bloodlust was because of rage over just how broken my body is. Just because you all are desperate doesn't mean you'd be happy to be doomed to die a short while after finally starting to live. I can empathize with that."
It isn't a lie. Yanagi and Tsumugi have talked about it before. Yanagi holds Homunculi in disdain--sees them as parasites, half-formed and ever-incomplete things--but she really can understand how they must feel. "As for why you... it's because you're convenient, really. I barely needed to approach you. The moment you saw me, you already had reason to slow down and talk to me, even if you started out hostile about it. Didn't you?"
She takes another sip of her hot chocolate. That much hasn't changed; she's always loved it.
The black coffee is a far cry from the Zunda-Ramune that Shinichi loved, though.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
There's a hiss of breath from between clinched teeth as she just giggles at him, his hand dropping and flexing at the side, like he was deciding whether or not to just deck her.
But apparently he decides against it.
He's definitely annoyed as hell, but he can't do anything about it- or well he can, but it'll put him in a worse position. How is this a thing, that people know what he is?
A sip of coffee is taken, with his eyes flashing as she says 'desperate'. He puts it down a little too hard, spilling a few drops onto the saucer. "You don't know shit about us." He says, because it hit too close to home. He can see it happening, bad luck that the other one that died parasitized a terminally ill girl on borrowed time.
Desperate, again- but she says she empathizes with that. That takes the anger out of him before he can express it, raising an eyebrow. "Sure... but..."
His rage over being in this situation, the humiliation of her knowing what he is- having this kind of power over him. He takes another bracing sip, then puts it down again.
"Convenient... for what?" He asks, enunciating slowly, like he's using every iota of effort he can spare to stay in control of his rage right now, it would be bad if everyone saw him lose it in a cafe, and take it out on a disabled girl.
Even a monster cloaked in Shinichi's skin knows that.
"Sure, I would stop. You know who I am." He tries to reassert, "And I know who you are. Brother and Sister. But what's that matter to what you want?"
Self-loathing. It's a trait Shinichi has, maybe deep down- the Homunculus does too, even if it's in denial. The desperation to become human, the knowledge that he's not. That he's a parasite that takes and takes and takes and gives nothing back.
And deep down, he knows that nothing he does will ever make him anything but that.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
You don't know shit about us, the Homunculus asserts, and Yanagi gives it a long, thoughtful look. She doesn't argue the point, though. She simply carries on, savoring another sip, until it asks what she wants.
She doesn't answer right away. This time, too, she doesn't acknowledge the 'brother and sister' part, which is good, considering she's been denying it up until now. At last, she sets her cup down, breathing a happy little sigh. Then she considers the Homunculus with another thoughtful look.
"You see, although I've helped exterminate several Homunculi so far, and I've gained quite a bit of experience with them, you're right. There's still so much I don't know about you all. It came to my attention when, some months ago, someone asked me about where you all come from and so on, and I realized I didn't know. I didn't think I needed to, but who knows what kind of information will come in handy?"
She smiles anew, eyes squinting shut. "So here is what I have to offer you. You give me information on Homunculi, and in exchange, I'll protect you from the others until you are 'Shinichi Nagisa.' That seems like a fair trade, doesn't it? ...little brother?"
And isn't that what it wants most of all, more desperately than anything? To be the someone who is her little brother--to have that acknowledged?
Yanagi is certain of that. And so she's just as certain that it's what will clinch this deal. After all, by doing so, despite knowing definitively what he really is... isn't she already giving him something?
Doesn't that require him, by his own reckoning, to give something back?
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
The reality of the coffee is it's bitter as hell, far too hot. It's unpleasant to drink, the acidity just sucks, but- as unpleasant as it is to drink it, he still drinks it. Because it's something people do when they're like him.
Or rather, when he's trying to imitate them.
He gives Yanagi a suspicious, wary look as she says she's helped exterminate several Homunculi, "You?" He seems to scoff at that, because, look at her! "How the fuck could you do a single thing? And don't call it extermination, damnit!" He whispers harshly because it likens them to pests in a way.
Where do they come from? The Homunculus just stares at her, as he considers that question, of course- not answering it.
"You- protect me?" He seems even more incredulous, "As if you even could. A light breeze would make you fall over on your ass, probably break a few bones too."
But something settles into him, from that all too inhuman human side of him. "Heh. You must really hate his ass to be offering that." He says, with a cold look and a smirk, "Don't blame you after he said you'd be better off dead. Damn. You're one ruthless bitch. Using me to get your revenge."
He's misreading her entirely of course, but it's human logic, filtered through his inhuman lens. But, he kinda likes that? It's a brutal, ugly feeling that he can understand. A cause and effect of Shinichi harming her, and now her coming back all these years later to get what she needs.
"Let's say... I'm interested. For now. But you deliver first. I've got every reason to think that after I tell you everything I know- you'll just go back on it."
And- part of the reason is, that he doesn't actually know how much information he can give... it's like he tries to think where he came from... and...
... nothing...
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Meanwhile, Yanagi does things for the experience, whether they're boring or fun, scary or comforting, delicious or disgusting. She'd drink black coffee precisely once--more only if convinced that trying different roasts would be a meaningfully different experience--and once she'd formed her opinion on it, that would determine if she'd drink it again or not. If she doesn't like it? She has no time for it.
Both of them are chained in their own unique ways, but still, Yanagi has a certain freedom to which the Homunculus can only aspire. It's in the name of that freedom that she's doing what she is right now.
She smiles at its scoffing and incredulity, and ignores its protest. "Your takeover of Shinichi's Atelier has been proceeding rather quickly. I'd say you're just finishing up Stage 2, about to start Stage 3, considering how you have the Humour Shadows almost totally cowed. The Sanguins seem to want to try to rally, but all they can really do is run and hide as the Melancs hunt them down and round them up. I can't imagine that your takeover would take more than... mmm..." She taps a finger to her cheek in thought. "One more month, maybe, at the rate you're going? Perhaps two at the most?" Though she really doesn't think it'll take even that long.
She smiles again. "That's part of what has so many eyes on you, you know. You're so aggressive, it can't help but draw notice." Another leisurely sip of hot chocolate. "Wouldn't it be more useful to you, someone who's already physically strong, to have someone who's so well-connected and informed on your side?"
She continues smiling and does not contradict the Homunculus when it calls her ruthless, assumes she hates Shinichi and wants revenge. Rather, she tilts her head slightly as her eyes squint shut and utters a tiny giggle.
However, it asks that she deliver her protection first. "Hmm... In other words, once you are 'Shinichi Nagisa,' you'll tell me all you know about your kind? Hmmm... What to do... I've never had a chance to interact with a Homunculus after it's completed its takeover. For all I know, once that happens, you'll forget all you know about having been one." She touches her chin, gazing into the distance. "We both rather have reason to distrust one another, don't we?" she muses.
She holds that hand out to the Homunculus, one finger outstretched. "How about this? We can take turns trading information until we're satisfied. It doesn't have to be now, and it doesn't have to be all at once, though I do encourage you to accept as soon as possible. I can even go first, if that makes you feel safer."
She pauses to consider. "Hmmm... Otherwise... Perhaps we can meet in Shinichi's Atelier, and I'll show you exactly how powerful my protection can be."
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"Stage..." The confusion is written on his face, like, even he doesn't know the life cycle of his kind, not completely. Or maybe he just doesn't have words for it. He parses it, trying to put it together, through the logic he has. "...Wait. Does this mean you've been poking around in there?!"
Do the Homunculi have words for them? Well, as it stands, it bothers him that they have scientific stages. Like they're being studied. Like Yanagi casually seems to know more about how to articulate what he is than him.
And not only that, she's been there. The place where someone could ruin everything. Where they could try to stop him from becoming Shinichi Nagisa.
He wants to stand up, he wants to scream, to flip the table right in her face, to run. All sorts of conflicting impulses take over him, but instead all that happens is his fingers dig into the table hard enough to make its surface creak.
"One month..." He echoes, like he's greedily evaluating the timeline. One month until nobody can say he isn't human. One month until he can stay here as long as his body keeps running.
"Of course I'm aggressive- what, you think I'm here to be some pussy?" He growls, but then turns his head again, like he feels the eyes on him. Where- where are they?
The sensation that everyone is out to get him, to deny him his greatest desire to be human is around. He tugs at the collar of his track suit, unzipping it, before turning back around. "... So like, some spy, working for me? You wanna be my personal Fujiko Mine?"
It's got several levels to that one. Her being so physically weak and definitely no 'femme fatale' in that way, and of course, them being 'brother and sister'. But also... his wariness that she might not deliver. Fujiko betrays everyone, always, and forever after all.
Yanagi's giggle seems to sell it to him at least, as he leans back, crossing his arms, "I suppose... that'd be somewhat useful." He's grumbling, almost sulking at the idea, but it's not like he sees no merit in it.
She raises some points, and he cocks his head, and shrugs his shoulders, "You really want to be some 'expert' on what I am that bad, huh?" He still doesn't like it, the idea of someone being an expert on him, "Mutual distrust it is then."
The Fujiko comparison seems to have settled into his mind, actually.
But meeting in the Atelier? He just instinctually knows that's the place he must keep safe in order to take over. He looks down the finger, then at her.
"Hm... That's acceptable. But while you're there, I'm gonna set some rules- okay? For now, I'll let- everything I have in hand know to let you through. Anywhere except for the innermost part."
His brows contract in mistrust, "But only you." He warns.
What a big strong Homunculus- if he was so truly self-assured of his strength, why must he act so paranoid about one 'frail little girl' coming in?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Oh? You hadn't noticed? My. You aren't very observant, are you?" Yanagi replies, and it might infuriate the Homunculus even more how genuinely sympathetic she seems to be. It probably doesn't help when she beams. "You really do need me!"
Its confusion, though... Maybe it is just that it has different words. "I mean of your development phases, silly," she adds gently. "You've hatched from your Cocoon, you've conquered the Humours, and now they don't attack you at all because they can't tell you from the real Shinichi. The Melanc Humours are following your commands, even. Isn't that why they're going after the Sanguins?"
Does... it not even know the names for the Humours...? Yanagi frowns. That bodes ill for it being able to tell her anything useful...
Still, she can't discard this possibility. Even if it comes to nothing on that mark, she's already committed, anyway.
Revenge. Yes. That's not an inaccurate description of what she's after.
"I think you're here to be broken down for parts because you don't know what you're doing," she replies, this time with reproach. "But that's all right. As long as you know what you are, I don't really care about the rest."
Yanagi is at least a beauty, much like Shinichi's body is handsome--though her beauty is generally with clothes on. It would probably be hard for most healthy people to look at her with clothes off. There are some notable exceptions, but we won't get into those. She doesn't respond to the Fujiko Mine comparison, only stares at him. She definitely knows who that is--she and Shinichi watched that show together growing up, among others--but there's something that might be chilling about the blankness of her regard.
But the two move on, and she sips her hot cocoa again. She's getting towards the bottom of the mug. "Well, yes. Knowing things is what I do, and Cocoons fetch for a handsome price, much more than you or my parents could ever give me," she replies, perhaps giving some insight on why she has no need for money. "So please do make sure your value to me is more than I would get in shucking you out of Shinichi's Atelier, hm?"
When he agrees to meet her in the Atelier, though, she smiles. "All right. Let's discuss it further inside." She gestures towards him. "You go on ahead. I'll meet you in fifteen minutes." She breathes in the scent of her drink. "The last part of a hot chocolate is too good to simply slurp down."
Which would track. Yanagi always liked the dregs best, after the marshmallows have melted in with the chocolate.
If it also gives her time to contact Tsumugi and the others, and have Pernelle send her into the Atelier, why, the Homunculus doesn't need to know about that.
~ * ~
However, it is about fifteen minutes later when Yanagi Nagisa appears in Shinichi's Atelier--a foggy, unsettling version of Mikage-cho, the town where the Nagisa family raised their children--all alone.
She has not yet Transmuted. She waits patiently first for the Homunculus to approach.
It is a funny little contrast, isn't it? The big bad strong monster is paranoid and afraid, while the frail little girl continues to be completely assured. My, what big calves you have, Yanagi...
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"Watch it." He growls, as she says he's not very observant, "It just means they're more useless than I thought." He does of course mean the humours. Those at least he understands quite well by instinct. A predator at least knows how to conquer his prey.
"I'm not some, goddamn biology case study!" Absolutely true! Because it's the wrong discipline altogether. He doesn't have a true physicality on this plane of existence.
"... It won't be long before I've got them all under my thumb." He eventually settles upon, regarding the Melancs and Sanguins. "Hurt them enough, and they eventually give in."
He gives her a dark look, as she says she thinks he's here to be broken down for parts, "I know what the fuck I'm doing." He says, but he's less- snarly about it, like he's learning to sublimate his anger and distaste for this situation, in exchange for survival.
Congratulations! He can in fact learn! How wonderful!
The blank look Yanagi gives him, "Huh. Thought you were a fan." He says, scratching the side of his neck awkwardly, and taking a sip, completely misreading the situation.
For some reason, he feels smaller than before.
"Oh, don't worry." He finally responds to her implied threat of what'll happen if he's not useful, "I'm worth every damn moment of your time... and then some."
Maybe taking the Cocoon would be another fate worse than death for the 'false' Shinichi Nagisa. He wonders, thinking that his sister is particularly ruthless.
He takes a sip.
Gets up, puts down some cash from his wallet.
Because no matter how much he hates this encounter. He's the guy. And so, he pays. And thus, Yanagi's hot chocolate is absolutely free. What a grand day!
If she actually cared about money.
Then takes off into a jog from the cafe.
-=-=-
In reality, he's still running. Jog-jog-jog.
Fortunately, in one's 'Mind Palace' or rather 'Mind Atelier' one can multi-task quite easily.
Shadows run in the foggy landscape- silhouettes of Melanc humors taking off on the hunt for more Sanguines.
One comes near Yanagi, to show a nurse she might have known, if her features weren't rotted away, with a single open eye socket. A zombie. Just like from the attack on the hospital when it all began...
It watches her for a time, swaying unsteadily, before turning and running off as if she no longer cared.
Whether this actually happened to the nurse or not in reality is up for debate. After all, it's Shinichi's subconscious shaping long buried memories of people, faces into things that purge his identity of invaders.
Or at least, that's how it ought to work.
Then there's a tap, tap, tap of footsteps. Another shape in the fog. "See anything you recognize, sis?" His outline, is like Shinichi Nagisa in some ways, but- off, somehow, but he seems to be keeping his distance some.
"Stupid little shit in the cocoon thinks he's the reason for what happened - after you 'died'. Pathetic really."
He starts walking, as if to force her to walk along the foggy expanse, at a pace that'll make it difficult for her to ever close the gap between them.
"Though, I guess you wouldn't even know. You probably weren't even awake. All those tubes and lines and shit. Heh, even living- it's like barely being alive."
And yet, a Homunculus envied it. Envied it enough to take over.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
At least when the Homunculus growls at her, Yanagi doesn't speak further. She meant what she said, but she's willing to let him blame it on the Humours. They did seem especially discombobulated this time around. She's pretty sure it's because this Homunculus is especially self-involved and not very insightful, which is only supported when it asserts that hurting the Humours is all he needs to control them.
Even after encountering her, he still thinks violence is all he needs. Yanagi is content to let him think that she's an exception, though.
He claims to know what he's doing. She stares at him, then chooses once again not to answer--to that, or to the moment of awkwardness when she doesn't respond to being called Fujiko Mine either.
However, at the reassurances that he's worth her time, she smiles. "As am I."
She lets him pay; she indeed doesn't care about money, and if he chooses to pay for the entire tab, that's his decision. If he really gets fussed about it, she can throw a few hundred thousand yen at him and be done with it.
For now, though...
For now, there is a foggy Mikage-cho. A rotted nurse approaches Yanagi, a running zombie of a Melanc. Yanagi watches it right back, expression impassive. She wasn't there for the Mikage-cho Incident, but she's heard much about it from Maki, Eriko, and others. When it eventually shambles away, as the Homunculus had promised, she gives a little decisive nod.
"A few things," she replies without looking at the approaching monster. An ethereal blue butterfly materializes to flutter past before her; with an easy, unhesitating motion, she drives her cane through it, smashing it to bits. Behind and above her, a pirouetting, needled-limbed doll of a woman materializes, and Yanagi's form transforms to gray and red and winter blue to sunset pink and peacock green and all the colors of the rainbow, so dazzling and brilliant that no one could ever call her a ghost.
She sets her cane back down on the ground, and a host of angelic origami spirits form in the air, then flit off into the fog. "And now a few things more."
The Homunculus keeps walking, though, and Yanagi, now in her reinforced Transmutation boots, keeps... somewhat of a pace with him. She still lags behind somewhat, but even if he fully enters the fog, she continues to know exactly where he is. Indeed, she moves out of the way of obstacles well before she should be able to see them. That doesn't mean she isn't listening, though, and her vivid eyes narrow.
"I wasn't," she confirms. "I didn't learn about any of that until much later."
So he doesn't just blame himself for her death; he also blames himself for the Mikage-cho Incident... The poor boy. He has no idea. He's being weighed down by things that aren't even his fault, that have nothing to do with him, all because he lost his temper one day... She bows her head.
She became free, and left behind chains on the ones she loved.
This really is her responsibility.
"Why does he think he's responsible for the Mikage-cho Incident?" she wonders. "I had nothing to do with that either."
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
He pays the whole tab. He doesn't get fussed about things he's made part of his identity. And part of his identity is the acceptable misogyny of every day life.
The figure in the fog does stop to watch her transmute. "Well well. Just like one of those magical girl shows." The Homunculus comments, "Maybe you really can be useful after all."
It's not as if he doesn't instinctively know what a Persona is- or that power which is ideologically tilted towards him, he has that narrative instinct.
It's just the fact she can muster the power to be a threat means that she can be useful. So long as that threat is pointed elsewhere.
"Yeah. That's what I figured. Even if you lived, you must have been fucked up during all that."
Step, step, step.
A much larger shape moves past them, though Yanagi senses it before it arrives. Yanagi has seen it before, the strange humor, rat-like, but made of metal...
It too, ignores her.
"Why? Why do you think? For some reason, he remembers- some of it, while most people didn't. Ignorant to the worlds upon worlds that lie beyond. You 'die'- it becomes hell on earth. Cause becomes effect when none exists. What is that, if not 'Karma' to humans? 'Divine Punishment'? Whatever you want to call it. Look how self-centered his Atelier's become, because of that. Like all that happened was personal- like the whole world revolves around making certain he suffers for what he did..."
A step further, and he's out of sight, as if to demonstrate.
"... it's part of why I like him as my host, so much."
Echoes his words, from the fog.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Yes. Just like that," Yanagi says with cheer dampened by the fog.
Displaying that she has a Persona, that she does have power, naturally would impress itself on the Homunculus. Even now it still says 'maybe,' but Yanagi... is not precisely unbothered, but it's something else she doesn't see fit to remark on. Anything she has to say on it, she's already said. If this Homunculus insists on underestimating her, she won't stop it.
Likewise, she doesn't comment on having been fucked up--but this time, it's because the Homunculus is fully correct. Maybe not in the way it probably imagines, but there's no need to fill those particular gaps.
Instead, she turns her head as that looming mass passes by. She has seen it. She lets it pass, just as it lets her pass.
Then the Homunculus answers. This time, she turns her gaze towards its silhouette. So he remembers some... Then--does that mean he has potential to become a Persona User, like Yoko...? Something to mull on later.
Right now, what the Homunculus says makes an agonizing amount of sense. It even has a point about how it's self-centered of him to think of all that as being his personally tailored punishment. How is he to know differently, though, when he knows nothing of the truth?
Her eyes narrow again.
"It's something you like?" she repeats. A beat. "Why do you all choose the hosts that you do? I know what creates the opening--that crack in self-identity--but you're saying it's not just the opportunity, it's a preference you make?"
Of course, maybe it means it's something it came to like after the fact--but that's why Yanagi's asking. To make sure.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
How self-centered. It truly is a self-centered perspective in a sense. As centric as it he's made his life around caring for people, he still leaves himself emotionally unavailable to allowing anyone to truly get close.
He's made himself live his life so completely and thoroughly alone, on purpose, because he's so afraid of causing harm to others. And if he were to be honest... to be hurt himself.
Yanagi 'dying', hurt more than he could have ever imagined.
She asks if it's something he likes, how they choose the hosts he does. This causes him to pause, as if in thought. Homunculi are odd enough creatures. They do require their Cocooned host to be able to articulate complex ideas at all.
Strip it away, and-
"Think of it as like instinct. If we see a crack in self-identity, then that's what makes them vulnerable, sure. But, we like particularly self-centered humans. Those who isolate themselves from the herd. Those who stick with it- they make it harder for us to prey upon them."
The silhouette shrugs again, then keeps walking.
"And- yes we have our preferences. I couldn't say where they come from. Like calls to like. The stories you humans have about 'Doppleganger' or 'Changeling' shape us, creates a certain fluidity. But there's 'something' to what we are though that remains a constant, deep down. ...Perhaps it is decided before we were even born."
The hospital looms ahead, a hospital she's seen so many times, though usually not from this side of it. At least, not for long.
"If that constant is created from pieces of humanity's tales- then small wonder that we wish to become one of them so badly?"
Tsumugi challenges Homunculi- 'Who do you want to be?' And often, they have no answer whatsoever, to what they will do with that human potential. The concept of ambition, almost foreign.
They can't see beyond the end of the road, when they consume the host.
What comes after?
Who would even know that?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It's a pain that Yanagi has honestly never imagined. Didn't Shinichi himself explode about how much she was making him and their parents suffer? Tell her if she's going to die anyway, she should go ahead and die? Why has it hurt him so badly to get his wish...?
...It takes a moment for her to hold back tears. In truth, she knows the answer to that. It's the same reason his getting parasitized has hurt her.
For all they've been hurt by the other, they still love each other, too.
Fortunately, any tears she does shed are lost in the fog, and the Homunculus is busy talking. That too gives her something to focus on other than the fresh wave of anguish her realization has given her--especially when it specifies what it likes especially. Self-centered--? Was she self-centered too? ...But when it adds 'humans that self-isolate,' suddenly she understands. In that sense... yes. She was self-centered too. She kept obsessing over how she didn't belong, about how she didn't help anyone else when they needed it, about the ways she was being privileged over the other experiments through no desire of her own that she accepted nonetheless. For all those reasons, she absolutely self-isolated.
It's an unpleasant insight, but it does explain a lot. So too does the Homunculus' confirmation that individuals of its kind have preferences. She silently wipes her cheeks and looks back in his direction, despite the fact that he's fully hidden in the fog by now. "The sea of the unconsciousness..." she murmurs, hearing what it says about pieces of humanity's tales and thinking of what she's heard in the Velvet Room. "Then you really are just a type of Shadow?"
She hadn't doubted that, but it's worth it to confirm it directly.
"So then it's the self-centered part of Shinichi's guilt that you're attracted to. Like the self-centered part of my condition must have attracted my Homunculus," she continues softly. And Taro Nakata, who had been getting bullied, must have obsessed over 'why me?'--and Kazusa Motojima, who looked down on others, must have obsessed over being on top.
"So then what comes next, once you're human?" she wonders as the two approach the hospital. Giselle, who pirouettes in her wake, has already sent her visions of it, and so she's not surprised to see it... but it is a change to see it from this angle.
"This is the heart of his Atelier, then...?"
The upward tick of her tone implies a question, but it isn't really. Not anymore. Not by now.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
It's the exact same reason.
Sometimes you can't appreciate how much you love someone until they're gone. Though, it took him time to understand that.
To understand more than his guilt born from Filial Piety.
The days he wished he could have a miracle of taking it back, having her back. But the moment, he came face to face with her again. He turned tail- and ran away.
If he always told himself he wanted her back deep down, then why did he run?
Why?
Why?
Is a miracle less valid if it wasn't created with your own hands? If it was just a casual, mundane thing. They ran into each other in a hospital lobby.
Completely by coincidence.
Can you say you've truly atoned, for what you've said, if you can't convince yourself that their return was the result of that atonement?
The Homunculus would think her tears are crocodile tears anyway. After all, he's convinced himself that Yanagi Nagisa is a manipulative, ruthless bitch.
"Naturally." The Homunculus answers her, "Though you couldn't say he wasn't self-centered before, now could you? His poor, unfortunate, sister. All he could think about was how you were eating up everyone's time. Your care dominating all of your lives."
Eyes shine, in the fog, causing that strange fog blindness, the Homunculus' eyes refracting off of every droplet of water in the air. And yet that strange eye shine doesn't let one see him any more. When light is shined towards you, what is behind the light is far more difficult to see.
"What comes next? Heh. Once I'm Shinichi Nagisa. Then- I can do whatever I want. Humans- they're all drawn to me, look up to me. Boys want to be like me. Girls want to be with me. I can live the life I was always meant to have."
It's sadly petty in a way. If you look past all of it, he wants to live a life as a human, where the humans are jealous of him. Perhaps as a revenge of sorts. For having what he could not. For being what he could not.
Now, he'll be so much one of them- that they'll want to be him.
At her last question though, there's something of a snigger- that becomes a strangely masculine giggle that climbs up and down the octaves.
"Almost... but not quite." He says as if he were privy to some joke that only he knew the punchline to. "What is the human expression? Three guesses and the first two don't count. Where do you think it is?"
Its chin tips in silhouette, lifting up towards the building, as if it were climbing floors, like an elevator.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
The great, ironic tragedy is that Shinichi doesn't need to atone. Yanagi's already forgiven him and moved on.
But how could he know that, either?
When someone you love dies, their thoughts and feelings die with them. That's how it normally goes. Who would ever expect to see a miracle in such an everyday way, as if the most abnormal thing were normal?
Yet... is it really that self-centered to wish you could have your parents' attention from time to time? Isn't that only natural for children, to want to receive love? Yanagi says nothing when the Homunculus brings up something she already knows, but she bows her head.
It really is strange and contradictory. If that really was consuming his thoughts, then why...?
She doesn't look up for those eerily shining eyes. She doesn't need to. She continues to navigate the foggy space as if it were a bright and sunny day. When the Homunculus claims boys want to be like him and girls want to be with him, then she looks up, lips pursed.
...It really isn't observant at all. It only sees what it wants to see.
Not much better than some actual humans, she supposes. Finishing that thought aloud, she says, "Why, you're more than halfway there."
It snickers at her then, and makes use of a certain expression. She follows the rise of its silhouette, gaze climbing...
"oh."
In a way, it's almost touching. Everything about this is centered on her, on that day, on his guilt and inability to forgive himself. Maybe it's self-centered of him to think the Mikage-cho Incident was divine punishment for him, but how 'self'-centered can he be when he's so focused on someone else?
Is it perhaps then less about being 'self-centered'--the preference of a creature that sees only what it wants to see--and more about being 'isolated'?
"I'll stay out here for now, then," she concludes softly. "Even if you didn't mind if I entered that room, I'd rather not. I can scan just fine from here."
She'd rather not see her brother literally wrapped up in his self-loathing. The Homunculus will no doubt assume what he likes, and that's just fine by her. It's even better if it moves on. She'd really rather not be in its company a second longer than she has to.
When she's gotten enough of the lay of the land, she'll see herself out--but she will return.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
It is- and it isn't. One of the grand truths of life is that everything selfless can also be selfish. And many things that are selfish might still have a selfless element to it. Things are not as black and white as all that.
But most people cannot see the in-between.
A child is meant to be selfish. That is how they form an identity. A child craves love, affection. They don't just want it, they need it.
That the Homunculus cannot see this, is proof that it is not human.
What happens once the Homunculus gets what it wants? What will it become? Is this ambition petty only because it is not there? Because it too is growing, developing?
Or is that all it can ever aspire to?
"It won't be long now." He says, eerily, like a creature anticipating a great feast from a kill. Slavering over it.
Then, she gets it.
And she can just feel it smiling, like a foul smell, from the resonance. Like she's now in on the joke.
She expresses the preference not to go in, and he chuckles, "Now I almost want you to. Tut tut. This isn't what you would call reverse psychology now, is it?" He teases, knowing full well it isn't.
"Take your time. Enjoy mapping things out. But now- I've given you so much. Answered so many questions. And I haven't really asked you a single one since you entered, now- have I?"
He so likes to hear himself talk, to be cruel in each moment, that it's almost like he forgot the purpose of this whole 'give and take'. Perhaps he's more like a man, than he realizes. Loving to explain things far more than he loves to get answers.
"Next time we see each other. I think I'll collect on what I'm owed."
The Homunculus walks through the fog, towards the hospital. His presence causes the doors to shudder open, before they begin an erratic rhythm of opening and closing.
And in a window that Yanagi knows well, there is a red shine, marking the return of its current occupant. The room that she wanted to get out of so much- is what this creature is wants to stay in, forever- and ever- and ever.
How truly perverse.