2026-09-19: Born from a Wish
- Log: Born from a Wish
- Cast: Yua Ijuuin, Yuuki Hoshizora, Misato Fushihara
- Where: Mt. Katatsumuri / Mementos
- OOC Date: sep 19 2026
- IC Date: Sat Jan 12 2013
- Summary: Yua goes on a walk by the base of Mt. Katatsumuri, bored of Aoba Park... but soon after she runs into Misato and Yuuki, labour pains kick in, and she realises she needs to help herself. With no options, she reveals herself to Yuuki -- and to Magus, who appears on Gretchen's Summoning to protect her -- and teleports them through Mementos to get to the hospital... but she's interrupted on the way, and the children need to defend her from the Shadows of Mementos while she gets a grip on herself!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7_-qdxVpZ4 Silent Hill f - Hougejaku
Ijuuin-sensei is on maternity leave, goes the gossip in Sevens... the teachers talk amongst themselves about how now she's reached her third trimester, she's scaling back her activity because she has a high-risk pregnancy.
Of course, that's not appropriate to say to students... but occasionally, things get overheard anyway.
Yua isn't locked in a tower or anything, though. It's still good for her to get outside! Even when Tyrrha's getting more repairs from Para-Mind, and Miho and Remi are taking care of business... why, at times like this, it's all the more important to get out and get her mind off things!
That's what Yua is thinking, as she gets her things ready, making sure her key to Gretchen is hidden in the false panel at the bottom of her purse. It's not just her purse, though; she heads into her study, all packed with the things she's storing here because she doesn't really understand computers anyway, to put her pack together.
"Ah, Gentle Mistress... were you going to go to the park again today?" Eiko wonders, as she pauses, by the door.
"Nn, nn... I'm bored of the park," Yua pouts. "I go there all the time... I want out out! I'm going on a walk in the woods!"
"Won't you wait for the Young Mistress to be done downstairs?" Eiko asks, concern crossing over her brow. "You should have someone with you right now..."
"I really feel okay!" Yua insists, making sure she has everything for a nice safe stroll -- emergency locator beacon, shiny shiny heat-trapping blanket, one of those multitools which she's lucky to have a lawyer on retainer about. "I promise I won't go on a hard walk... I just don't want to city right now. Hey, hey, can you fill these up?" She lifts a couple of flasks of water, and Eiko hesitates, for a moment, before she takes them.
"Of course," Eiko nods, and does just that.
... even if she's worried about her, Yua's been hiking since she was a young child. Surely she'll be okay...?
Once her pack is lightly loaded up -- Yua can't carry heavy loads, right now -- she heads downstairs, where she's called their driver to the underground parking lot. Before she finds him, though, she goes to Para-Mind's ostentatious van, knocking on the door. "Yoo-hoo!!" She calls, which is only half her being cute; she also doesn't want a gun in her face.
It takes a moment for the door to open -- Para-Mind's in here alone with Tyrrha, who is running on reserve power while he sorts out some of the bugs from his recent fix. "Yo, mama!" She chirps, though of course she can't really move, right now.
"Hey, no helicopter parents," Para-Mind grouses. "If you wanna hover, you're gonna help."
"I'm sorry," Yua smiles, to him. "I don't mean to crowd you, Pami-Pami. I just wanted to let you know I'm going for a little walk on the trail," and this, she directs to someone who cares, Tyrrha. "I expect to be a couple of hours... don't worry, I'll go easy on it!"
"I'll come with ya!" Tyrrha volunteers, cheerfully, only for Para-Mind to emit the sound of a buzzer --
"Bzzzzlt. You're goin' nowhere 'til I figure out where the wire's crossed. Your voicebox goes all robo-Exterminator again when you're at school, we're busted. You're just lucky it happened at dinner that time."
"Oh, yeah, 'cuz I got my throat cut," Tyrrha says, and her pout is audible, if not presently visible. "But Hasegawa-san's reaction was so funny! He was like, 'are you chokin'???' He was soooo fussed!"
"He believed it was an artificial voice box," Yua assures Para-Mind, "so there's nothing to worry about." That's her first worry when Tomoki comes up around her 'associates', of course. "Mm... do you want me to stay until you're done, ucha...?"
"Naw, naw, I'm cool," Tyrrha assures her. "Go walk, mama! Didn't the doctor say it's good for ya?"
"She did!" Yua smiles, sunnily.
Para-Mind does not care enough to point out that there are different qualities of 'walk.'
...---...
Seiji insists on staying at the base of Mt. Katatsumuri, when he brings Yua to the base of the trail, and instructs her to come right back if she's getting tired. Yua -- at this point quite tired of everyone thinking she can't even do a simple thing like a gentle walk up a trail when she knows for a fact that she can start a fire with ten times the amount of things around than he can and does he even KNOW the proper way to boil water for drinking?! YUA DOES! -- smiles and assures him she'll call him to leave if she feels funny, so he doesn't need to stay the whole time on her account.
She's just feeling a little crowded.
"Mooouuuuu," she huffs, grasping the straps of her pack with a big pout, once she's out of earshot. "Yua-chan is Yua-chan, you know!!"
... a pouty voice like hers does tend to echo through the trail, though, especially down here near its base where the incline isn't too punishing and the path is smooth and clearly marked. She's at least dressed in something more sensible for a walk in the woods -- sturdy maternity pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt, with a jacket over top, plus her hiking boots -- but that's unmistakably the voice of the dance instructor.
It might not even just be demons listening in for that, this afternoon after school...
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki is walking with Misato, along the trail at the base of Mt. Katatsumuri. The brown-haired girl has a dark blue jacket, lighter colored blue jeans, and boots on. She also has a comfy knitted hat on her head, which is a pleasant pale green color. Her hands are shoved into her pockets.
She invited Misato out for a nice winter hike. It seemed like a nice thing to do with a friend.
Alone.
And she has no idea this is also Magus, her rival-slash-comrade-slash-person she sometimes kisses. She walks next to Misato, a little closely -- but maybe that is only because it's a forest, it's a little shadowed, and it's a little chilly. "I-If we stayed until night time, we would be able to have a clear view of the stars! Especially out here."
A pause. "Of course, um, we'd have to find something to d--"
She blinks. She hears a familiar voice. She turns her head to Misato.
"Is... is that Ijuuin-sensei?" she asks. "It sounds like her voice..."
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Students aren't supposed to overhear rumors like that. ...But Misato tends to hear them anyway, because she's the nosey sort that keeps her ears alert for anything that might be useful information for her. Usually, though, it's just gossip.
She doesn't see it being that relevant today, though, because Yuuki has invited her out a nice winter hike! She said yes, of course.
And so, Misato strolls on alongside Yuuki. She walks alongside her with a delighted little bounce, hands clasped behind her back. It's nice to do something with her.
Misato, of course, knows exactly who she is. That's why the current situation is a little complex. But it's fine to do something with a friend.
"Really? I'm sure they'd be really pretty..." Misato comments thoughtfully. And then Yuuki starts to suggest that they'd have to find something to do -
- and she can not voice the first thought that comes to her mind. She looks away awkwardly, and she finds herself quite grateful for the sudden distraction.
"...You're right. I think it is..." Misato comments, surprised. "...This is a little far out, isn't it? Should she really be out here right now...?"
She frowns thoughtfully.
"...Should we go check on her?" She asks - and if there's no disagreement, starts to head that way.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Yua, if she knew, would surely not look so unkindly on Yuuki's special friend. But teachers aren't really meant to hear that sort of gossip... even if Misato hears more than she's meant to hear.
But they do hear her voice, and so, there they go -- to find her sitting in a little clearing, on a fallen log. "Oh! Hoshizora-kun, Fushihara-kun, hello! Are you going on a walk after school...?" She sees them, and calls to them, waving them over with a cheerfully flapping hand. "Did you remember to bring snacks? Oh, just a moment, I have some..."
She takes off her pack -- it at least doesn't seem like it's much of a struggle, even her geolocator is light-weight, money can't buy happiness but it can buy easier-to-carry equipment -- and opens up the satchel in front, to pull out some trail mix bars!! She holds one out for Yuuki, and then for Misato, and there's no fighting the brooding hen on this one. Eat your snacks, kids.
She takes a third bar for herself, and nibble nibbles at it, delicately. "Isn't it nice out here?" She bubbles, cheerfully. "Ahhh, you can really breathe...! I've been cooped up way too long!!"
Well, that explains why she's out here...
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"Right now?" Yuuki asks.
The rumors have gone around Sevens -- but Yuuki Hoshizora isn't the most tuned into the rumor mill. There is a blink, but then she notices that Misato seems concerned. (And that distracts her from the way that her friend seemed a little embarrassed for a second.)
She nods. "Let's do that."
When they find that it is indeed Yua, Yuuki smiles at her -- a little uncertainly, before she takes the offered trail mix bar. "Thank you, Ijuuin-sensei. We are, yes! I, um, wanted to see about seeing the stars. And we should have a great view of Jupiter. And it's practice for October, when we might be able to see Uranus without a telescope from the right spot, and--"
She flushes red and quiets down for a second, embarrassed as she catches herself.
"Y-You have been out lately... um, how are you doing?" she asks.
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Misato looks at Yuuki as she raises a question. ...It looks like she doesn't know. ...That makes sense, actually, she shouldn't be surprised. No offense, Yuuki.
"Well, uh... I didn't say this, but she's supposedly super pregnant right now, and it sounds like it's been rough..." Misato explains.
They do, indeed, to go check on her.
"Hello, Ijuuin-sensei. Fancy meeting you out here!" Misato greets brightly. Snacks! She did, in fact, remember to bring some... but she finds a bar held out for her anyway, and it feels like it'd be rude to turn it down. And Ijuuin-sensei is one of a few teachers she actually likes.
"Oh, thank you. It looks good!" Misato replies. Yuuki explains why they're here. Her eyes are squarely on her as she begins to gush about the stars.
...She doesn't know much about them herself, but she does like how much Yuuki is enthusiastic about them. She offers her an encouraging smile when she turns red, before looking back to Yua.
"It is! It's a nice day, isn't it?" Misato agrees. She's been cooped up too long... So that's why. "Yeah, how're you doing? We've been worried about you!"
Well, she has, she can't speak for anyone else.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Ah, beautiful!" Yua chirps, brightening, when Yuuki talks about stargazing. Even though she clamps up, Yua just claps her hands -- with one hand still curled around her trail bar it's a little awkward, but she's got the spirit. "I've got my sextant somewhere in my bag, too... you know, stargazing is very practical when you're at sea! Sometimes, it's the only way you can navigate at all! Did you know that back home in Okinawa, you can see the Southern Cross from mid-winter to early summer...? Oh, but you must go all the way down to the Yaeyama Islands sometime! You can see almost all the constellations from there!"
Oh, no.
Yua does it too.
But just as Misato says: she's super pregnant. Indeed, she's close to 29 weeks pregnant, now, which puts her officially in her third trimester, or: kind of obvious as to why she'd be sitting down despite the fact that things don't get really steep until further up the trail.
"Oh, but I haven't meant to worry you," she assures Misato, smiling, as she takes another nibble of her trail bar. (See?? She can even eat! ... thanks to the pills she's taking.) "My doctor recommended I go on leave a little early, but I haven't been put on bed rest or anything! A little exercise is just fine!" Other types of rest are a different story, but that's not a story for the youth. "Don't worry, I'll be back teaching again after my maternity leave... I'm not retiring or anything!" Which is a concern, for women in the workforce; many early-career women retire to become stay-home mothers, in Japan.
"How have you found your first week back?" She asks them, smiling. She feels a stab of anxiety, but surely she's just worried about worrying such a sweet girl as Misato? "It's your last semester of second year, isn't it? That's so exci--" her breath hitches, "so exciting --" and no, it's not just nerves, she realises, as her jaw sets.
"Ah-- s-something's --"
She fumbles for her pack, to pull out her phone, tap out a number -- "ah? No... service...? Even here?!" She yelps, as Miho's number hangs before it even rings through. She shoves her phone at Misato, a touch desperately, and says, "... can you run down the trail a little and call the number under Mimi? The unlock code's 9 12 13 9! Tell her... tell her I need help...!"
(That's the 9 kanji strokes of 'Mi', the 12 kanji strokes of 'Yu', the 13 kanji strokes of 'a', and the 9 kanji strokes of 'ho'...)
There, she leaves Misato to run off, as she doubles over, clutching her belly. "Ah...! Why... why'd I send Seiji-san away...?! Ah--aaahh!!"
And that's a cry that rings through the forest, loud enough for Misato to hear even if she's started off down the path already...
"... ah... Hoshizora-kun... I'll explain everything, I promise... just... stay with me, and... tell them I'm at the bus stop and need help, please..."
... the... bus stop...?
There -- her fumbling hands reach into her handbag, to lift that false panel, to pull out --
-- it's like an Evoker, but it's heavier, bulkier, more a revolver than a pistol.
As she places it to the eyepatch slung over her left eye...
... and whispers, voice thin and taut...
"... Persona."
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"O-oh... wow," Yuuki says. "We should definitely check on her, then."
And indeed, they do find Yua.
When Misato gives her that encouraging smile, she stops clamming up quite as much and looks back at Yua. It's a little wide-eyed; sharing her interests is, sometimes, rather fraught for her.
But, Ijuuin-sensei is interested! A-And... knowledgable, too. "Really...? I've never gotten to see the Southern Cross! Aah, I'll have to go some day..."
She tilts her head for a second, then. There is a nod, and she looks relieved, to hear that she won't be leaving. Just when her maternity leave ends--
Yuuki looks confused, at first. Then, though, the dawning realization kicks in. Her maternity leave starts today, she realizes. "Th-the bus stop?" Yuuki asks. "I--um--I won't go anywhere, just--"
She looks at Misato, wide-eyed, and nods. She looks like she is about to panic; her voice is bordering on a squeak. But she is trying to keep calm. "I'll stay with her, just--just give them a call, and--"
She looks back at Yua. She has heard of Evokers; she hasn't seen one. But she realizes, after a moment of panic at seeing a gun in the first place, what that might be. And then she calls out that fateful word. Her back goes rigid.
Her green eyes go wide.
"I-Ijuuin-sensei?" she asks. "Y-You're--"
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
It does please Misato to see Yuuki stop clamming up as much. Then she looks back toward Yua... and finds herself surprised as she echoes Yuuki's enthusiasm about the stars with equal encouragement.
"Oh, that sounds lovely..." She comments. ...Both of them know way more about this subject than she does, so she can only express interest in their interest.
Yua assures her that she hasn't meant to worry them.
"I see..." Misato replies with a thoughtful nod, as Yua explains that she isn't on bed rest and exercise is just well. "Well, as long as the doctor says it's okay... I'm glad to hear you'll be back, though. I'd miss your dance classes!"
She starts to ask them about their first week back - but then she's interrupted.
"Ah, Ijuuin-sensei, is everything okay...?" Misato asks, concerned. She takes a step toward her, reaching out... and then, she finds a phone shoved into her hands.
"Ah -" Misato starts. But Yua gives her a mission - and her light, cheery expression shifts into a more serious one.
"Unlock code 9 12 13 9. Call the number under 'Mimi'. Got it." Misato repeats. She nods toward Yuuki, then. "I will. Take care of her, Yuuki-chan!"
Misato breaks off into a run. She is a good runner, even if she isn't as capable as she used to be.
And so, Misato breaks into a run. She keeps a steady eye on the phone, waiting for the moment it finally gets signal -
- and then she hears a cry echoing through the forest. Misato stops dead in her tracks. Did something happen? Demons have been spotted in this area before...
...This place. She can feel the hostility suffused into it. If that's the case, maybe she can...
She reaches for that feeling - and her voluminous hooded cloak, purple with gold trim, settles over her form, a mask appearing on her face.
She hurries back.
With a flourish, Magus returns - no, she appears, because she was never there at all, of course - skidding to a stop.
"I heard a scream, and I saw a girl running as if someone's life depended on it. Is there trouble?" She asks. ...She still has the phone in her hand, so she clarifies, "In her haste, it appears as if she dropped this."
And then she looks toward Yua.
Her eyes settled on that Evoker. Heavier, bulkier than the usual model.
"...A Persona user." Magus finishes for Yuuki.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"It's so beautiful!" Yua enthuses, genuinely, to Yuuki. "Oh, I should see if I can convince my seniors to take you on a class trip sometime... there's a whole Dark Sky National Park in the Yaeyama Islands, you really get lost in the stars..."
Oh, Yua might not have stars as a primary interest like Yuuki does, but that doesn't mean they're not still very interesting. Her primary special interest, as it happens, is -- "Oh, I'd miss dance classes with you all far too much to stop for long, myself!" She assures Misato, sunnily. "I really wanted to help you guys learn to dance...!"
If only she could sit here and talk about dancing and the stars forever...
There aren't any bus stops nearby; they're on a trail in the woods.
No -- to get to a bus stop, the quickest way which doesn't involve walking back out is to --
What rises in red flame and shattered glass, around Yua and Yuuki, is a woman; clad in a white gown, her hipline is as high as their heads, twice the size of them as she towers above. Glittering diamonds hang from silvery pendants hanging from her neck, slung around her waist, hanging from her arms... arms which have prison bars forced through them, creating a cage she can close simply by grasping her hands before her in penance. A mask like a habit or a satellite dish covers her face, and she makes no sound, but the presence she exudes is strangely...
Drip, drip...
Stillwater drips, forgotten and stale as the air, cold on the skin. Chthonic, there are things locked away and forgotten...
... this must be Yua's Resonance, but why is there a threatening backbeat to it, as if some great monster were bound deep below?
"There's -- no time," she rasps, as Magus enters the scene. "Come to me -- if you would guarantee her safety -- but this is no -- ahh!" Yua doubles over, again, crying in pain, and there, again -- another red THRUM, as Gretchen silently howls, arms stretching wide as if a swan preparing to beat a man's limbs broken. "No -- trick! I must -- get to hospital -- something is wrong!"
Where she staggers standing, there is blood, on the log, where she sat; blood, streaking down her legs. Isn't the phrase 'water of the womb'? Those aren't supposed to be... bloody, right...?
... Yua's too preoccupied to explain the details of how a placenta can attach itself by the cervix where a baby ought to make its exit, how the interplay of forces can cause bleeding where it oughtn't be. "Come!" She barks, again, one hand still grasping tightly to that Evoker, her backpack forgotten as she struggles with her Persona until Gretchen curls her arms around them -- if they gather with her, trapping them all in that cage. It's a different perspective, looking out from within...
"Gretchen!" Yua demands, as that towering Persona takes them from the myth-laden tracks of the forest into another spiritual zone... Mementos. This is what the teleportation they've seen her perform is like...?
No -- it can't be -- because Yua cries out, and another thrum of red breaks the spell, and they're dumped not at the entrance to Mementos... but deep in the realm of Aiyatsbus.
And Angel and Archangel, Shadows of Mementos, have heard their entry -- and swarm in to attack with holy powers, as Gretchen seizes behind them, and Yua sinks to the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
Yuuki takes a step backward, nervously.
She hasn't changed yet. It's a blurring of the usual lines; it's a brown-haired, mundane-looking Yuuki that looks back to Magus, instead of how she looks when she uses her Transmutation. "I... I had no idea," she says, before she looks back at Yua.
She swallows.
There is a woman rising above her -- a Persona, Gretchen, who she has seen once before. She steps back with a wide eyed stare. She almost bumps into Magus. She looks back at her, terrified, and then back at Yua.
"Hold on," she says. "We'll... we'll keep you safe." She sucks a breath in, then closes her eyes. Her brown hair floats up; there is a gleam, and then it turns a bright blue. When her eyes open, they're a bright and shining green.
She is clad in light -- and then in a sleeveless, short black shirt, and a skirt. Her hand, outstretched, has a rapier drop into it.
She looks at the Archangel -- and then makes a wave of gravitational force try to throw it backward.
She glances at Magus. "The--the girl who was running away," Yuuki says. "She's okay? Did you see?"
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
A... Dark Sky National Park? Misato doesn't know what that is off the top of her head - but she can guess. She smiles as they chat, and nods when Yua assures him.
"I'm glad to hear it! I wanna learn from you, too!" Misato agrees.
...If only. If only that was where it ended.
But Misato exists and Magus arrives, meeting Yuuki's terrified glance just briefly, to see a familiar Persona materialize around Yua.
"You... You're... the one they call the Bride, Yua Ijuuin...!!" Magus almost shouts. Such fury might be a surprise from her - almost as much as the fact that she knows her by name - but for Misato...
She's just realised that the dance teacher she respects is also among those masked agents she's fought time and time again...
The stab of betrayal runs through her - but Yua's insistence that there's no time, that there's something wrong... Magus grits her teeth.
...As she says, she has to guarantee her safety. And even more than that... given what she knows, something like this happening can't meant anything good.
...Even she can't direct her anger at her directly when she's like this.
"...Fine." She exhales.
They're whisked away into Mementos and Magus can feel her stomach lurch - but with a cry from Yua, they find themselves dumped deeper in.
"...We will. Stay behind us. And don't do anything to exacerbate your condition." Magus insists. "Nitocris! Obscure her!"
The regal woman materializes behind her, casting her eyes toward Yua. Magus draws upon her power of presenting false fronts - to make Yua look less appealing in the eyes of the Shadows, and Magus herself more.
...But there's blood in the water - the air - and the sharks have come running. How long can she expect to conceal her...?
She draws her sabre and parrying dagger from her cloaking, leaping toward the Angel with a paired stab.
She looks toward Yuuki only briefly.
...Even in a situation like this, she's worrying about her.
"...She seemed out of breath, but unharmed." Magus explains. "...Though I quite imagine she will be kicking herself when she realises her error, if this is what she was fleeing from."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I... I am," Yua pants, to Magus's betrayal. "Though -- I never wished to be. My wish... was corrupted, and so... I have done you harm in the evenings, and... seen your weariness as you came to class the next day."
... it's not just her growing pain, but the effort it takes to remain coherent, as she's calling on her powers.
"I'll -- ah! -- I'll be still," Yua promises Magus, though she looks up with sorrow, behind them, as the matter goes to Misato. "Oh... did I... frighten her...? No, Fushihara-kun... she must be all right...!"
Angel and Archangel throw the weight of Hama and Kouha at Magus, as she draws their ire -- but Yuuki throws them back, into each other, and they're unable to escape before Magus sets on them with her dagger and sabre. If it was just the Shadows, surely it would be fine, but --
There, again -- the THRUM -- that red flame, coursing over Gretchen, as she jerks and seizes like a marionette jerked by some unknown hand. Yua fumbles for her handbag, breath sharp and laboured, and draws from that secret compartment a safety syringe. Ever seen one of those pens which classmates with allergies carry around for their safety? Or an insulin pen from a classmate with diabetes?
In this, like those, she slams the pen into her arm -- and only then does the sinister, violent sensations emanating from that Persona quiet. "Forgive me," Yua says, her voice rasping, as she tucks the spent pen into her handbag and drags herself up by Gretchen's skirts. "I can... now get us through. The pain -- was maddening -- I'll not hurt you. Come..."
This time, when Gretchen whisks them away, she takes them to the entrance of Mementos -- and they can sense that just beyond is the bus stop in front of Aoba General Hospital.
"You have... my phone...? Please... call her... call Mimi..." ... but normal phones don't work at all, in Mementos, so they'll need to ring when they're back in normal space.
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"You--you know her?" Yuuki asks, with a surprised blink in Magus's direction. How could she know her? She bites her lip, trying to keep her panic to a minimum. Being in Mementos, suddenly, is horrifying; she has displaced most of that panic.
"She... she's my teacher," Yuuki says. "I... I never imagined... but still." She exchales; she shakes her head, then, and looks after Magus as she leaps into the fray.
How does she know Yua Ijuuin, though...?
Working together, Magus and Yuuki push the Shadows back. But it might not be enough.
She looks at Yua. She hesitates on the subject of Misato -- out of worry -- but then she nods. "I'll find her after we get you to safety," she says. "I promise. She's--she's my best friend."
She winces, though, as Gretchen jerks. This was something forced onto Yua. A wish that was corrupted. Something she never wanted. Her eyes widen, as the flame rolls up.
And Yua has to use... a pen, of some sort, to stop herself.
Yuuki swallows as they're teleported away again. They appear near the familiar entrance, and then she quickly nods. "I will," she says. "I--I'm going to have to step out. Magus, can you get her up to the entrance and--um, help her get past it? You don't have to follow."
She runs up the escalator that leads to the real world. As she does, her hair turns back to brown. Yuuki's memory is quite good; she quickly does the unlock code, having heard Yua say it to Misato earlier. Then, she starts calling.
And the moment someone picks up, she is standing in the middle of a train station with a crowd, and cries out into the phone: "Y-Your friend Yua Ijuuin-san is having a baby RIGHT NOW and she's going to the h-hospital! We've gotta go fast goodbye stranger whose name is Mimi!"
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Magus meets Yuuki's surprised glance - and it might be only now that she realised what she said. She grimaces.
"...I do." Magus confirms after a moment of hesitation. There's no point in lying. "I am... in one of her classes, as well."
Yua goes to a lot of different schools and sees a lot of different students. It's... probably safe to admit that much, right? That doesn't really narrow it down.
Yua confirms Magus's fears. That she is who she thought she was. Her wish was 'corrupted'... and so, they fought in the evenings, even as she saw their weariness the next day.
"Your wish..." Magus repeats with a shake of her head. "And now you break others'."
Yua promises she'll be still, and that, at least, should make it easier.
Did she frighten Misato...?
...Yes, she did - even if she would never, could never, admit it.
Light spells are thrown at her, as she draws her enemies' ire - but she trusts her rival to have her back in a fight, and gravity forces the heavenly demons back so that she can capitalize on the moment of weakness.
There's a thrum of red flame and Magus whirls, a sharp word on her tongue - but she bites it back as she sees Yua fumbling for something. One of those pens - some sort of treatment...
...Even she'd feel awful for yelling at someone for seeing to their medical needs.
"...Very well." Magus says. She pointedly does not say whether or not she forgives her. But the pain was maddening... So that's why. They're whisked away again - and this time, they do end up at the entrance to Mementos. She looks toward Yuuki... and when she asks like that, she can hardly say no.
"...I can do this, Yuuki Hoshizora." Magus decides reluctantly. She looks toward Yua, then.
"...Come then, Yua Ijuuin. I will support you that far." Magus says, looking her way. ...She's still doing the 'full first name-last name' thing even after acknowledging that she's her teacher...
"...Now. I trust you with Yuuki Hoshizora. Do nothing to harm her." Magus insists. She doesn't expect Yua can do much, in her condition... but it's the statement that matters. And she steps back, and back -
- until she's on the other side of a set of Mementos's train tracks. When one of those many Shadow-bearing trains races in front of her, she's gone by the time it passes.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I am," Yua confirms, when Yuuki says she's her teacher. "As -- I must be." She doesn't recognise Magus... but she is a young woman who knows her name, so what other explanation could there be?
Magus confirms it herself, in a fashion -- and Yua says, through grit teeth which have nothing to do with fury today: "Your Resonance shrouding... even more impressive than mine. I reckon you not. You were not... shaped?"
She thinks she's being clear, in why she's so afraid to ask such a thing.
"For this do I trap and torture," Yua says, and perhaps the way that injection pen is in her hand as she answers Magus seems coincidental. "I am bathed in 'Sin'... I won't reach heaven with the things I've done. I'm sorry... I never wanted you to see me this way. Don't you see? Gretchen can barely stand my wickedness..." But Gretchen is her Persona, isn't she?
... does she mean she hates what she's done?
Well, that's also true.
"You're a good girl," she says, to Yuuki, when she promises to find Misato, and for a moment she still sounds so -- normal. But what is normal? This strange cadence, melodic and pressured and confused? Or their dance teacher's bubbly cheer...?
She reaches out to grasp Magus, rather than her own Persona -- and have either of them ever seen someone grasping their own Persona that way, disregarding the polite fiction that they're untouchable entirely? -- and Gretchen fades, as she trusts herself to her sworn foe, instead. Her face is twisted in the pain she's bearing, and her legs tremble; it's hard to imagine her harming anyone, in the state she's in.
... even so, Magus has seen her enable that misery with her own eyes.
"Thank you," she says, quietly, to the mysterious masked girl. "... I'm sorry. Come to the hospital... during the Dark Hour, and... and we'll explain... I owe you that much."
A visit like that is one she'll want a friend for, surely...
... luckily, Yua will make sure to repeat the invitation to Yuuki, quietly, as she crosses the threshold and relies on her to help her to sit on the seat of the bus stop while she runs off to fetch help from the hospital.
"Mimi..." Yua murmurs, clutching her midsection in braced pain.
"... what have I done...?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuuki Hoshizora has posed.
"I... I see," Yuuki says to Magus. Does she--could she possibly know Magus? Will she be looking at everyone, now, trying to figure it out?
If only it were that simple.
Yua's torment is striking and terrifying. She can't control Gretchen -- something her parents never encountered, never told her about. She stares at her for a second, blinking in confusion when she is told she is a good girl.
"R-Right..."
She hesitates, as she looks back at Magus. There is a blink -- at hearing Magus be protective of her. She didn't expect that. She doesn't need that, either. But...
It doesn't feel all bad, either.
"I'll be okay," she promises, quietly. Then, she is off.
And a moment later, Yua is through -- and Yuuki nods, quickly, to her. "I... I'll get help. I'll be back soon, I promise!"
And, once again, she is off.
<Pose Tracker> Misato Fushihara has posed.
Yua comments on her talents. But, 'shaped'... That word choice seems very particular. She doesn't understand the depths of it, though.
"I hone my skills as I must. I cannot afford weakness. ...But I became what I am by own will." She answers.
Yua speaks... and says that she is bathed in Sin. Even Gretchen can barely stand her wickedness.
"...I... was not aware that could happen." She admits, taken briefly off-guard. Can one turn so against their path that their own Persona rebels against them...?
It's a misinterpretation - but now that thought is in her head.
Yua grasps her, and thanks her - and Magus doesn't respond to the thanks. She does nod, however, as she asks her to come to the hospital during the Dark Hour.
"...Very well." She relents. And once she's seen her through Mementos's threshold... She's gone as well.
She's going to have a lot to think about - but for starters, she should probably return to where Yuuki will expect to find her...