2026-09-26: Fragility and Strength
- Log: Fragility and Strength
- Cast: Yua Ijuuin, Hana Fukami
- Where: Aoba General Hospital
- OOC Date: Sat, Sep 26 2026
- IC Date: Wed, Jan 16 2013 (Forward-dated)
- Summary: Hana comes to visit Yua and Hiroki, after her rescue.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Not every day has been roses and baby cuddles... especially now Miho's had to go back to work, and can't advocate for Yua 24-7. Earlier today, the crash cart was in the room; Miho was informed that Yua's blood sugar levels had dropped to 2 mmols per litre, alarmingly low, and they had to rouse her from unconsciousness. When she insisted on her suppressants, when she woke up, the nurses had no choice but to comply -- Miho's already had words with the manager, so even if they feel weird about giving her access to a drug they don't understand, they have to do it.
Her hormones have been going wild ever since labour... and these doctors don't have the insight to know why. They don't understand that a human can be reduced to a number, the way Yua does.
Has an 'Artificial' Persona-User ever given birth before now...? ... there are people who would love that data. Indeed, she may well work for one of them... but Yua will trust those decisions to Miho.
Now that excitement has come and gone -- and Yua's assured Miho that she'll be okay and she can get back to work, incidentally -- the space is calm enough for visitors again. Two nurses in the hall, though, are discussing things in a low voice...
... how they feel sorry for her son, when his mother is an intravenous drug user, and it must be why her husband rarely visits.
That's them, though.
In her private room is Yua, looking quite run-down but much happier now Hiroki is at her breast again, IV medication running into both arms as her hands cradle the wrap which holds him steadily. Her usual bun is undone, braid trailing over her shoulder and into the bed; she's in a hospital gown, though it's presently undone and pooled around her waist to make room for the wrap. For once: no makeup.
She sings a low, sweet song, in her native Okinawan.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Wednesday... Hana Fukami is still decompressing from her ordeal. She has a lot of things to talk about with her partners--but she also, thanks to Miyako, has a message. Yua is in hospital, after almost dying while Hana was away. ...For her own reasons, Hana feels a need to go see her. While Emisa in particular feels some reluctance to let her go...
Well, she's on sick leave from work to 'recover', so she has the time.
Besides; everyone but Hana has to go to work.
Miho was here earlier; now...
Hana, in clothes that feel more like hers again, walks through the hall as she's been directed towards the room where she's to visit. That means she hears the nurses. She looks over at them--
And smiles, warmly. "Could you please tell me where to find Yua Ijuuin?"
...It's a cheap dig, to make them feel bad gossiping about the person Hana is here to visit, but Hana still feels enough spite after all that to give it. Spite... It makes her wonder, really. An experience like that, and instead of just feeling grateful to be alive...
She has a low-key anger, still, at the injustices of the world.
It feels good.
But eventually she knocks. "Yuarin?" Hana says, and doesn't come in until Yua gives her the cue. Once she does though...
"Your song is beautiful," she says. "...Hi."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Oh, ah... just in here, ma'am, Room 5." One of the nurses gestures, to her, looking a touch embarrassed. ("Do you think she heard us?", she can hear her whispering, as she walks on; "I hope not," is the reply, "that family is intense...")
There is no Room 4, as it happens; it goes straight from 3 to 5.
And there, the door, the knock --
"Come... in?"
Yua's voice rises, in query, as she hears her; her eye widens, as she looks up, and Hiroki stirs slightly to feel her stiffen beneath him. She's here? She's back?! She's --
"Koto...ba? You're... okay...?"
A beat, and then, as the door closes behind her --
"Hands!!" She yipes, and with no Miho beside her to translate, it's up to Yua to remember to explain in the next breath: "You've gotta clean your hands!! Germs are not allowed!! Uh-uh!!"
There's hand sanitiser on the wall, and on the end of the bed, and on the bedside table, it's everywhere.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
"Thank you very much."
Come in? Hana does. she smiles, when Yua seems so surprised. "I'm here," she confirms. The door closes, and before she can say anything else--
Ah. "No germs," Hana agrees, and chooses the sanitizer on the wall, carefully cleaning her hands, down to the long nails. Nails can gather a lot of things if you aren't careful with them!!
"Thanks for telling me," Hana says when she turns back to Yua. "Can I sit down?" she asks, and then--
"...Oh, he's beautiful," Hana says. "He's so small..."
She smiles at Yua again. "But yes. I'm sorry to have worried you. I'm afraid I don't remember everything," she lies smoothly.
...There are things she can't tell Yua. Not like this. And that doesn't feel wonderful...
But it'll help her help.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Is that okay?" Yua asks, when she asks if she can sit down, and then -- "oh -- um -- okay!" ... like she thought she was making a demand on her and used the wrong social script.
But there is, indeed, a chair beside the bed; it's one of the nice chairs, too, designed for lounging, and it's at just the right angle to engage with Yua, so she luckily doesn't have to move to show her the dark little baby swaddled against her. (Moving is still agony, as it happens. She still has a hole in her gut.) "Look, look, see? He's got Mimi's eyes... and Mimi's hair!!" And Okinawan skin, as it happens, thanks to an anonymous donor... tellingly, he's darker than Yua, though not so much that it's inconceivable her baby just doubled down on his island roots.
(She doesn't like female nurses looking in on him when her chest is bared like this... but she can't imagine Hana being weird about it.)
"He's ten weeks early," Yua says, "but he can breathe all on his own!" It's not all on his own; she can see the oxygen tubing. That's probably not what Yua means when she brags on his behalf, though. "He can't quite eat yet, but they give him my milk through his garage tube so he still thinks he is... I'm empty right now, so he doesn't drown, which they said he can do since he doesn't know he can't eat right yet..."
(... garage... tube?)
If Hana can't tell Yua everything, though, perhaps in a way she can feel a little closer to her, knowing how Yua couldn't tell her or anyone so much about her life. Yua doesn't know enough to point out how funny that is, though; she's too busy feeling relieved that Hana did forget. "Oh... you lost your memory?" She asks, frowning. "That's too bad... but it's normal when it's that scary, you know...?"
She looks down; perhaps the sight of her baby can calm her, when she's feeling overwhelmed. "Those scary things... are normal for me, so... that's why I told you it was too much for you. I... I did... try to find you, but... but they threatened my baby, so I had to run away. Ever since then, even when I went back to check on Saga or Yakoaki or Teruda, I never could find that door again... even though nothing can hide from me when I'm really looking."
Yua pauses, and shakes her head. "Um... but that's not what made me go into labour!" She adds, concerned that she'd worry about it. "It was -- there were other bad things, and -- and mostly, I was stupid, I wanted to go on a nice forest walk even though everyone was busy."
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Social scripts! They're tricky.
Hana accepts this nice chair, and Yua shows off Hiroki, and Hana smiles to see. This is not her first baby to hang out with! ...Her first quite this small, though. "Oh! I see!!" Hana beams. She notices a lot of things... but no, she's not weird about it.
"That's wonderful," she says of the breathing. "He's really amazing." Pause. "...Garage tube?" Hana can't help but ask.
Hana gets it, that Yua can't tell her--but at the same time, it feels... different. "Mm. Also, they tell me that they may have drugged me," she says. "But..."
She gestures. But it is pretty scary. But those scary things...
"That's all right," Hana says, perhaps more gently than might be expected. "I came through okay. It was important that you protect your baby." Pause. "...I heard you checked in on them. Thank you..."
But nothing can hide... "It turned out all right," she says. "That's what matters most."
Yua is quick to reassure Hana, which Hana aprpeciates--but she had that worry herself, and was able to consider the timeline after. So...
"I see," Hana says, and looks sympathetic. "I don't think that's stupid. You probably felt really cooped up, didn't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Oh, um..." Yua looks around, as if expecting that someone would be here to explain for her. No one is, though, so she has to look back to Hana and say: "... it's 'gavage', how they say it, but... I don't like medical words. They're scary. They scare you too, don't they, bubba?" She asks Hiroki, her voice going to a higher register as she speaks to him. "Since they're so scary... I make them cute! When the words are cute, they can't hurt us!"
She frowns, though, hearing that Hana was drugged. "That's awful," she says, and can't even say it's a fabrication of her mind. The bird wasn't one of theirs, but no one ever said they were the only gang in town.
"... there was nothing I could do," she says, "but... I knew you'd be worried about them. I thought... I could make up for it, or... you know?" ... she sounds pretty hopeless about that, though, as if the very concept of making up for what she's done is impossible. "But... mm... I'm glad someone was able to help."
Even Remi put on her costume to venture out there, she heard, while Miho was still busy setting things up for her to stay here on her own... and while she wonders if it's all right to use their powers for themselves this way, her seishitsu assured her she'd thought of a cover story if she were to be questioned over it.
Still, Hana can figure out the reason immediately. "Mm-hm," Yua hums, nodding. "Like... we went to the park for a walk pretty much every day! Mimi and I, or Tykko and I, or Recchi and I, or even my home nurse, Sachie-san... oh, it's funny, you know?" She adds, as she thinks of it. "When I said I'd made friends with you, she actually recognised you... she said you were totally inspirational! And when I asked about that, it turns out her tattoos were ninkyou dantai tattoos," that's how Yakuza like to call themselves, "and she used to be part of the clan... but since you have to be a man, her boss let her go when she changed her name and stuff. I didn't know that!" Did Yua just assume that women were running around in the yakuza all the time? Well, the Order is arguably worse, and she's running around in there, so...
She pauses, for a moment, gazing down to Hiroki, with her warm and bubbly tone half for Hana and half to reassure him. Then, she blinks, looking back up to her.
"... oh! Right, what was I saying?"
Yua got totally side-tracked...
"... right, cooped up! So I wanted to go for a walk, but I was so bored of the park! I know the park inside out and upside-down! So I thought I'd go for a nice little trail walk... nothing hard or anything, but I wanted to see trees, you know? Trees! And rocks and stuff! It's not like I never did that either... mouuuu, but I should have known not to go on my own." She pouts, as she adds: "It's lucky my students were there to help... Hoshizora-kun and Fushihara-kun. If it wasn't for them... Hiro-tan might not have been okay."
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
No one is there to explain! Except Yua. And Yua does, and Hana thinks about it. "I see," she says. "That makes sense."
But cute things can hurt. ...Hana doesn't contest it, though.
'Drugged' is a good cover story, and it helps sell that she doesn't remember everything. It's not true, exactly... Unless you consider all the mediocre coffee she had at the cafe to be drugs. Most people would not.
"I appreciate that," Hana insists. "They were really worried... and they couldn't do anything, either. Even though Teruo likes to be the hero--I have a story about that, if you'd like to hear it."
A lot of somebodies were able to help.
"Yes, I see," Hana says, and then listens--and after a moment's obvious surprise with a slight widening of her eyes, she smiles. "Really?" she asks. "Well, if I could inspire her, I'm happy. ...I want to inspire people like us," she says. "I can't hide... So I'd rather shine."
She is a little surprised to hear how well that worked out for Sachie, though. Is it really that easy...?
Well. Anyway.
"Yes, I see. I understand." She looks sympathetic, her face shifting to match. "I'm glad, then. He's too precious."
"...We have an awfully helpful set of youth, don't we?" she asks. "I think the new generation is going to be good."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Yua don't know how good Hana's psyche is at making cute things scary!!
She would contest that coffee is drugs, though. She had to monitor her caffeine intake while pregnant, alongside everything else, to make sure she didn't have too much...
"Mm, mm," she nods, when Hana says she has a story. "Storytime! Storytime!"
And Yua smiles, when Hana smiles, too. "Sachie-san was really happy you had a show and stuff. She said it was tough to get a 'legit' job, since she looked scary... but Mimi didn't care how she looked, she cared whether she scared me! And she didn't talk like a doctor," she's not a doctor, Yua, not everyone doing health is a doctor, "so she wasn't as scary as the other people she brought in for me to meet. Ever since then, she's helped take care of me! Mimi asked her to come today, too, to be with me while she's at work now she had to go back, but... mouuu, my big emergency happened while everyone was still asleep." She pouts, as she adds: "I woke Mimi up..."
One presumes that Sachie has been employed to attend Yua for more than just one day, but Yua's taking everything one day at a time. After all, maybe the day after tomorrow she can go home...!
(... and it's not that easy to get out and be yourself, as it happens, but Sachie spread a Rumour, and her boss liked her to begin with, so she managed to get out of it alive. Sumaru's just kinda like that. ... does it mean a Rumour is what's keeping her safe, though...?)
"He's my beautiful baby boy," and Yua grows positively teary, saying that, but it's not because she's sad. "Everything about him is so perfect... that's right, Hiro-tan, you're my perfect baby boy!" There, again, that high register she lapses into to engage him.
"Mm, mm, my students, too... they're so responsible," Yua smiles, still gazing at her son. "Akechi-kun even brought me tea and rice cakes after I went out to bring Yakoaki some cookies, just because he saw I was tired... such a diligent young man. Oh, and young Ryouhara-kun, too... he made me tea after a terrible thing happened, he made sure I wouldn't need to be the one to make it... oh, they're all so kind!"
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Storytime! "Well, a while back, Ya-chan was having some trouble. Someone had gotten pictures of her at the wrong place, and was threatening to release them if she wouldn't pay them... it would've been bad, at the time. So Teruo found out who was doing it and confronted him himself. It wasn't ever a problem after that--the blackmailer just folded. ...But Teruo couldn't find and save me, this time. I think it stressed him..."
Still, Sachie. Hana inclines her head. "It can be," she says. "But I'm glad she had a place with you two, then. ...I hope you can see her soon."
One assumes that, but...
Yua is teary, and Hana smiles. "Yes," she says. "He is."
But Yua's students! "Akechi-kun is so kind," Hana agrees. And not just kind; there's a still to him she can still appreciate. Her 'justice'...
Her 'justice' will see Yua freed, too.
"Well, good! That's lovely."
"...I've got some time off, too; I need to go back to the doctor to make sure everything is still fine before i can go back to work..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"He did sound stressed," Yua says, on Teruo. "I don't really understand men, but... I think it's really nice he cared a lot. I just said he should take care of Saga and Yakoaki, since they were stressed, too... though... you know, the trick is I said that to everyone, just in different ways?"
(It's not that no men in her life are caring -- or boys! She just described two! -- but it's still notable, in her mind, when most of the men she's encountered bear sharp suits and no empathy.)
Yua smiles, and adds: "Don't worry, she'll be here soon! At morning tea, I think...?"
And there -- the kind boys. "Mm, mm," Yua hums, warmly; she holds Akechi in great esteem, and has long-forgotten the insult of her business card.
"Ah, you do...?" She wonders, when Hana mentions seeing the doctor. "Um... will your show be okay? You know, after getting kidnapped... they're not gonna cancel you or anything, right?"
(Cancelling means something different, it's 2013, she's referring to Hana's show.)
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Hana has a better understanding of men than Yua, she'd say. And really, "He does, he cares a lot. ...I think that must've helped. It gave him something to do..." a pause. "Did you? ...Hmhm. I guess that's kind of how it works, isn't it?"
Hana has dealt with many caring men... and also Kimitake Ijuuin.
But, "Great."
But Hana will see the doctor and, "...Probably," she says. "Kiki was able to take over for a while as the main host; the official story is that I was out sick. Some people know I was actually 'missing', of course..." She shakes her head. "Either way, that shouldn't be a problem. Of course... When I confront Matsumoto-san, that could be an issue..."
"But if it happens, it happens. I'll move forward with my career either way."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
That's fair. Hana has personal experience, after all!
"Mm," she hums, when Hana asks. "Since Yakoaki felt like she wasn't doing anything, and so did Saga, and so did Teruda... so I said she should worry about their feelings, and give them lots of protective hugs, and make sure the sink was fixed in your new place before you got there...!"
If that's in order, that means she thought Teruo ought to fix something to demonstrate his care...
... well, at least she was trying to think of something that would help him specifically...
She frowns, though, feeling concern as she hears that uncertainty. "Kiki was worried, too..." Because of course while visiting Hana's various partners to deliver them healing snacks, she can't have totally missed her co-host. "Mm... I hope he's not mean to you," she says, her brow knit. "I don't know if... I could talk to him, or anything... people like that find clan names impressive, right?"
Aww, look, Yua really is becoming a rich woman! She's starting to explore nepotism!
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
All of them had things to do... "I see! You know, I can really appreciate Ya-chan's work there if I think about it..." Emisa, of course, is very protective--and Teruo, "Haha. He is pretty handy..."
It was an effort! They all were working on it.
"He will be," Hana says bluntly, without seeming too concerned. "But it's fine. I can be a little mean, too. If he wants to give me trouble, or release bad things about me..."
"I can mention how he fired an employee who was in the hospital for spurious reasons."
Clan names...
"I appreciate it, but I want to stand on my own for this one. It'll be fine."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Everyone felt powerless... I thought it was better if I encouraged them to do the stuff they really could do. Mm... like, me, too... I couldn't do anything, so I just kept baking stuff to bring to them... so they'd at least have some yummy cookies?"
Yua sounds sad, but it might be something of a glimmer of hope, really; even though Yua feels so trapped and thwarted, she's at least trying to exercise what little power she can grasp, in her chains.
She doesn't sound any happier hearing how the Producer is likely to react, though. "Mouuuu..." Yua pouts, at that blunt response. "That's so risky... but... if you're sure? You don't even want me to ask Mimi who the good lawyers are? Mm, then... good luck, Kotoba!"
She's doubtful about whether standing up to power will really work, but...
Well, it's Hana's life, right...?
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
"That's great," Hana says. "It's really good, in a situation like that, to focus on what you can do... I think you were kind." She smiles. "And I got to have a couple of the cookies that were left!"
Yua feels so sad.... Still--
"He doesn't even work at my network; he has contacts, but so do I. ...If I end up needing a lawyer, I may come back and ask," she assures Yua, "But..."
"Well, your Miho-san's lawyers might be out of my price range," she laughs.
"But it's important to me. Since then... I was always afraid."
"And I'm not going to let fear rule me."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Really? Then I'm happy!" Yua smiles, as if all it takes to snap her from one mood to the next is a compliment or an assurance that she enjoyed her cookies. "I'll cook you more yummy cookies, okay? As soon as I get out! I want to go home tomorrow... or at least by the weekend! Tykko loves weekend dinners, because I have lots of time to cook big things like roasts, I can't miss weekend dinner..."
She sighs, though, the reactiveness of her happiness shattering a moment later. "Mou... but these meaniehead hospital doctors keep saying I'll be here for a month... I told Dr. Matsuhashi to tell them to go away when she came to see me, but she said I keep decompensating and I might die! It's no fair!" Her anger is plosive, and Hiroki, hearing it, stirs with a whining little cry --
-- as Yua gasps, and shushes him, hugging him tighter. "Sh-sh-sh, it's okay... it's okay, Hiro-tan, mama's not mad at you, it's okay... mama's fine, mama's fine..." ... and she only grows more teary, as she tries to insist to him that it's okay, but she somehow manages to struggle her voice back down anyway. He settles, at that reassurance... but he's already intuited that things are wrong when she's upset, hasn't he?
Her smile wobbles, a little, when she looks to Hana, but she tries to wear it anyway. "Oh... I forgot that our lawyers probably have really high fees... but make sure to get one, okay? I remember him saying that anyone representing themself has a fool for a client... and I don't really get how it's that complicated, but it must be, right?"
She shakes her head. "I think... you're a really brave person, Kotoba. Much braver than me... I really hope you win."
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
"Sure!" Hana answers, and then... listens to Yua's hopes and the way those hopes are dashed. She doesn't really like being in here at all--which is fair. Hana doesn't either, frankly. Being on this side is at least tolerable, but...
"I'm sorry, Yua," Hana says, and she means it. "It's not fair..."
But she sees, with some worry, that Hiroki is having trouble with this, too. It's okay, but... is it really okay? Hana is quiet at that.
"I will," Hana assures Yua then. "Oh, it's very complicated--it's a whole field! But I'm sure Sa-chan knows a good one--she knows someone for everything!"
She smiles back. "...I have people behind me," she says modestly. "But I want to be. That's for sure."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
When a mother's under strain, her children feel it, too. Even though Kimitake has been kind thus far in his visits, watched by blood relatives... the tension in Yua's body and the emotions in her voice are already teaching Hiroki that there's something worth worrying about in this world.
What's worse, perhaps, is that she's trying... and the guilt in her eye is heavy as any shackle.
"I'm glad you're not alone," she says, softly. "It's hard to be brave when you're alone. I think... someone must be looking out for you, right? So... you'll be okay."
She really hopes she'll be okay.
<Pose Tracker> Hana Fukami has posed.
Hana sees it... and she can imagine what happens with Kimitake.
That guilt...
Hana smiles, and tries to be reassuring. "It is," Hana agrees. "...It really is."
"Mm," she says. "There is. ...There's a lot of people."
"So I will. ...You'll see."