2026-10-15: Change
- Log: Change
- Cast: Kanae Fuyuki, Coin
- Where: Aoyama-Itchome Station
- OOC Date: October 15, 2026
- IC Date: January 24, 2013 (Backdated to right after the Atelier scene)
- Summary: Emerging from Shinichi's Atelier, Kanae wonders if they all missed Coin--until she spots her. The contents of her pockets will not be of much help.
(|========================== Aoyama-Itchome Station ==========================|)
-==================================================== Tokyo/Aoyama-Itchome ====-
A crowded train station leads to sunny streets and colorful businesses, but this
is an illusion of freedom. Your perspective narrows as you continue to walk, no
matter whether you turn down the main walk or cut through the alleyways. Darker
shadows line the way, past the temptation of vending machines, as the gates and
higher walls of the building come into view.
March along with your fellow students to your destination, some few of whom
understand that society forces them to consign themselves each day to
imprisonment. The kanji for 'Shujin' in local prep school Shujin Academy means
'Utmost Excellence,' but it also sounds like the word for 'Prisoner.' That
wordplay is all too apt, concealing in plain sight the fact that you are a
prisoner here for six days a week and the majority of your waking hours...
And then you go home.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
The internet is a place, and that place is in the building nearby where Kanae Fuyuki is standing now. She's seen the others on their way, the trip to the 'real world' having restored her uniform rather than her Hunter's garb. It's evening by now, dark out with all the time they took inside, and Kanae is pretty tired...
But she feels good, on one level, too. They made it. A lot of strange things happened, but--
"Whew..."
The winter uniform at least is nice in the January chill. But Kanae pauses after a moment, realizing she's missing something out here in the alley next to the internet cafe. "Hey, uh..."
Kanae turns around. "Coin?" she asks.
"Are you here?"
Could she... not get out of the supernatural space???
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
The Internet *is* a place or, depending on who you ask, a series of tubes. Either way, you can't stay there. Eventually, you're going to have to get out of the tube.
But Coin was not immediately present, or at least Kanae didn't hear her at first, so maybe she *didn't* come out. It was easy to, if not precisely forget her (she is pretty hard to forget), at least overlook her while more urgent things are dealt with.
The reason is, of course, because Coin didn't get in through quite the same route as everyone else. It was similar, and it had only worked because someone else had opened the way with the Thread. She's not interested in trying it again. But it meant that when she left, she wasn't in with the computer with the others.
In fact, the alley was the place she'd been sent; a 'side street', not a main access, it's close enough for cognitive work. Which means that when Kanae calls out...
"Oh thank *goodness*!" That's definitely Coin's voice. "I didn't know what to do! There were so many *people* around out there and everything is *different*!" Even a not-very-busy street in Japan has more people on it than Coin has ever seen in one place before. "Not in a bad way, but - look, it's very surprising!"
A few moments later, and someone peeks out from the alleyway.
The person in question looks to be a little younger than Kanae; fifteen maybe, she could pass for first year in high school. She has a slender build, with long hair caught in a single tail - it's probably the most eye-catching thing about her, because it's a bright orange-red, except for a streak in it that's much paler, almost white-blonde.
Also she is wearing Coin's Hunter's outfit - a completed version, with dark pants and cuffed boots that she doesn't properly have as a fox, to go with the waistcoat and knee-length coat. The sword is, at least, not present, so she's not going to get caught for carrying a weapon around.
"See?" she says. "I didn't expect that I was going to be *human*!" She sounds somewhere between awed and shocked. "It's amazing! And completely unexpected! How do you manage without a tail??" She's also not bothering to keep her voice down very much, even though she hasn't come all the way out of the alley.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Tubes...
When Coin speaks up, Kanae is also relieved. She'd be worried otherwise. "Sorry," Kanae starts, "I had to figure some things out with the others..."
Kanae is at least sympathetic to it feeling crowded; she grew up mostly in a smaller town than the big cit(ies) of the greater Tokyo area. But surprising? "Huh?" Kanae asks. Then--
She turns around to see Coin peeking out, a little younger than her, with that bright hair and--
"...You're so cute," Kanae can't help but comment, laughing a little despite herself. "Wow! You really are a human!"
Pose. Probably. Close enough?
"Well," Kanae says, walking up across the alley to get within proper conversational distance, "I've never had a tail, so I don't miss it. Does it help that much?"
She glances around, and--
Well, there's gonna be some weird looks. But that might not be a huge problem...
...Well, one thing at a time.
"How do you feel?"
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"Cute...?"
Well, that's not so bad, is it? Coin has always been kind of cute, even if she rarely used that term for it, so maybe it's not a surprise. Certainly not as big of one as, well. The whole situation!
But she really is a human... "I know!" she says, excited. "Isn't it great? I had no idea I could get to the physical world like this!" There's so much to see, so much to do... once she gets used to seeing so many people around at once.
"I guess it's..." Coin's brow furrows. Why is she human? "...I guess because I'm a person too," she says, slowly, as she works her way through it. "And out here, people are mostly human..." (Wait, *mostly*?)
Now that Kanae has had a moment, she might detect something else about Coin: she feels different. Not with the same brutal sense of *wrongness* as a Homonculus; she doesn't seem frightening at all, and doesn't bring on unease. But she's just not entirely human, either. She always did, of course, but now that she's human-shaped it's a bit more prominent. Persona-users would probably be able to pick her out pretty easily as something Other, but she's not likely to set off everybody else's subconcious warning.
Does a tail help that much? "It balances you out," Coin says, though given she is currently standing on one foot while she tries to look at each boot in turn, her balance seems pretty good as is. "And it moves. Nothing moves like that here!" She pauses, holding out her long hair for a moment at arm's length. She lets it drop a moment later. "Well, this does, but I can't move it without my hands..."
She brightens again. "I feel pretty good! Even if everything is the wrong height, you hardly notice," Coin says - well, she's only ever been here in the Dark Hour, so she never got used to it in the first place. But she was pretty short before. "Ha, I bet the konbini door is really easy now!"
Coin...
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
"Cute!" Kanae says. "Humans love cute," she assures Coin. "You look a little younger than me, but still around the same age as most of the Persona-users running around here. That range, anyway."
But she smiles. "It's great," Kanae agrees. "The physical world has a lot to recommend it, if you ask me. There's dangers and all, but it's a good place to be."
But why? Hmmm.... "Hmm... That makes sense," Kanae says. "I can kind of feel it," she says, thinking about it. "That you're not human, exactly, you just look like one. Maybe that's because I met you the other way... but maybe not." Pause. "Either way, though, you are a person, so that's as good a reason to look human as any, I guess."
"...You're sure you never met a guy named Henry?" she asks. "Or Igor?"
That's the main people she knows of around here who aren't 'human'. ...Plus Pernelle, maybe. But she doesn't want to think about Pernelle right now.
"Hmmm, OK." It balances you out. "Yeah," she says, and feels the need to similarly touch her own long hair, though it's loose, not in a ponytail.
"I bet!" she says. Then--
"Well, this means we can get you a phone and stuff, right?" she says. "If you want."
Pause. "...Thanks, by the way. For coming in like that, helping. I don't know if we'd have been able to do it without everybody we had. You made a difference, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"You did all seem to be about the same age," Coin says, even though she is *absolutely* not good at guessing people's ages by sight. It isn't something that comes up very much for her; she's never had to.
But she brightens. "Right? I want to see it!" Coin moves as if she's going to step out of the alley, but slows down so that she doesn't pull ahead of Kanae. "Well, maybe not all right now, but... I can go so many places now! Meet so many people! It's a lot easier than doing it in the Dark Hour. The coffins are kind of creepy," Coin admits.
Henry? "I *don't* know Henry!" It's what she said last time, too. "But you never asked about Igor before. He's in the Velvet Room," she says. "...I haven't talked to him. Personally, I mean. But I know who he is."
...
"...Sort of," she admits, a little sheepishly. Nobody *really* knows who Igor is or where he came from. "But I know about the Velvet Room, never fear! I never had much of a need for it, but Trish sometimes goes where it is. She says the business is better..."
Apparently she really does prey on the need of Persona-users.
But then she's thanked. In her original body, that might have gotten her to move her ears, or flick her tail, but in this one she reddens slightly and doesn't realize she's doing it. "You are welcome!" she says, puffing herself up with pride. "Of course I would help you with this hunt. Even if there's other things to do afterwards. I wouldn't just *leave* you!"
A long beat, while she considers Kanae.
"What outfit is *that*?" she asks, before looking down at her own. "We don't match at all!"
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
About! Close enough. And Kanae does not step out immediately. "You can!" Kanae says, but quickly realizes what's going to be the problem here. She doesn't speak on it immediately, because she's stuck with, "The coffins are totally creepy. It's worse if you were talking to someone before the Dark Hour hits--you have to kind of... wait around and hope they don't notice you aren't in exactly the same place you were before."
She doesn't, but she does--"Oh! Hmmm, OK. Well, as far as I know, nobody else meets Henry, just me. But a lot of people know Igor. He's cool."
Pause. "Trish... Uh, yeah, that doesn't surprise me."
She smilse back at Coin. "I appreciate it," she says. "I do. ...And I believe you! You wouldn't just leave me."
Pause. "Oh, uh..."
"This is my school uniform," she explains. "I mean--You know what school is, right? We all wear more or less the same things, though it's different for girls and boys."
"It's..." She considers. "I guess it's like the Hunting garb, just for school instead. ...But if you want to explore the world, we're going to need to get you some clothes that don't stand out as much."
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
Coin spins to look up at Kanae. She still has to look up, though not as far as she's used to. She looks pretty different from this angle, Coin thinks. It's a novelty to be able to look a human in the face at equal heights!
...more or less equal, anyway. She's pretty short.
"Well, I don't have to deal with that," Coin says, before pausing as she realizes that yes, she does. "...hmm." It was easier when she didn't have to think about that. She'd never seen anyone get out of the coffin; she always just left them entirely alone.
"You should introduce me to Henry if you're going to keep asking if I know him," Coin says, nodding to herself in satisfaction. The fact that this may be impossible does not occur to her. "As for Igor... I can meet him."
But now Coin is learning about school uniforms.
She looks down at her own outfit. It looks, on her, like she's dressed up for a costume party as a pirate or something and had an unlimited budget to do it with; it's tailored for her, and the coat looks like actual leather. She even still has her hat, though the feather - outside of cognitive space - is not quite so impossibly vibrant and iridescent. It's just a pretty feather, and not a remnant from a Shadow.
"Hmm," she says. "I suppose I will. These are very suitable for Hunting, but I suppose they're less suitable for..." She waves her hand outside of the alley. "Everything else!" A beat as Coin's eyes widen, because she's just thought of something. "I hope everything is all right when I *go back*!"
What? She's way more experienced in that kind of exploration as a fox.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Kanae's not too tall, either: she's a round 160cm, about 5'3". it is different!
Kanae is pretty sure Coin will have to deal with that. As for Henry, "Sure. Maybe he'd be willing to leave the Velvet Room sometime; he's asked me with some interest about the outside world..."
"Cool though. Igor's good."
It's a very nice outfit, but it is very conspicuous. "Everything else," Kanae agrees amiably. "Oh, it probably will be," she says. "My Hunting garb sort of just... appears and replaces whatever else I was wearing in the first place. It'll probably be like that for you, too."
She can... probably turn back into a fox. That would make sense, anyway.
"...You could come back to my place," she says. "You've been there before now, and I could lend you something. It'd be a little big on you, but it'd be easier to shop for new stuff that way..."
Not that Kanae has unlimited funds, but, "...Maybe a trip to Mementos for some spending cash, too."
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
Coin has not measured her height (and her boots probably confuse the issue a little bit; big boots always seem to add a bit) but she's maybe 155cm at the high end and probably less than that. It's a common 'short' as opposed to her two and a half foot tall visage, but it is short, even for a first-year.
On hearing Henry is also interested in the physical world, Coin beams. "I knew I wasn't the only one!" She nods to herself once or twice, then: "I mean, you shouldn't think that I hate it in there. I don't! But we only see people through their cognitions... and that includes distorted cognitions. Like Foraines. Like the Atelier!"
She does hope she changes back, though - at least when she's there. She misses her tail. And her ears. These ones aren't nearly as sharp.
At the offer, Coin brightens. "Yes! That sounds like an excellent idea," she says. "I will try not to take on too much of a debt to you!" Well, the *last* person she took help from in a situation slightly like this was Trish, so of course she thinks of it that way...
"...spending cash?" Coin starts to check her pockets. "I may have some in here..."
A few moments later, and she has come up with 725 yen in mixed coins, an American quarter that she's still not sure how she got, a couple pieces of debris from defeated Shadows, a shiny piece of hematite that she rubs her thumb across thoughtfully, a Life Stone, and what looks like a wadoukaichin at first glance - she tucks that one away in a breast pocket rather than her regular pocket but does not want to part with it.
"There," she says, holding out her handful of items. "Will this help?"
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
"He's had me bring stuff to him?" Kanae says. "Like, just... normal stuff. Croissants." That was the last one. The 'crossed ant'. "Hmm. Yeah, that makes sense. And no, I don't--it's normal to want to go places you don't usually get to go. To see things and people you don't usually get to see.'
Kanae is OK with human ears. But, "Don't worry about it," Kanae tells Coin, waving her hand vaguely. "I'm not going to give you anything I can't do without. ...But friends help each other."
Spending cash! nd--
"That's, uh..."
Pause. "I like the rocks," she says. "And that's a neat coin. But uh..."
"No," she says. "No, that won't help all that much."
"Though we might be able to trade the life stone to a Shadow. That'd work."
"I'll make a list of stuff you'll need. Train card... phone if you can manage it... clothes..."
She nods, thoughtfully.
Then she smiles. "...it was getting a little lonely," she admits. "I have friends and all, but... i can't talk to most of them about stuff like this. And i don't have Touma at all anymore..."
"So having a new friend is nice."
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"Croissants..."
Coin doesn't immediately recognize what a croissant is, despite being able to speak (or at least pronounce) French all right. She'd probably want one, too. Umie has already got her on nikuman.
Coin's pocket treasures do not seem to be making much of an impact. She deflates slightly. "Oh," she says. Having no idea what anything costs, she had no idea how much she could buy with it, but it sounds like 'not a lot'.
She ends up pocketing most of it again just to get it out of her hands, but she keeps the yen out, because if they are going to use the TRAIN she will need to PAY. (She is aware of that because she's hopped the turnstiles in Mementos. Who's going to yell at her, a Shadow?)
Though, a card? She thought it took money. And a phone - "I don't have to go all the way to Giga Macho to call," Coin says, cheerfully. Was that her plan all along? Clothes are obvious. She'd definitely need those, because she can't wear this everywhere. Though at least it's warm enough that the winter air isn't bothering her.
Coin reaches up and thumps her chest with one fist. "I understand. It's been lonely for me, too! And you can talk to me about anything." Even if she doesn't understand all of it... "So, um. Um!"
"...thank you. For everything! Let's stick together." Coin beams, then and offers the hand she just used to shake.
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Luckily, they're very easy to get where Kanae lives. Also chocolate!
Indeed, though. Not a lot.
"That's cool," Kanae says. "It's kind of out of the way..." That was definitely a plan. At least the Hunting garb is good for winter, anyway.
"Yeah?" Kanae asks, and puts on a faint smile, nodding to Coin. "I'll take you up on that. I've got a lot on my mind lately. ...But maybe not right now."
"I'm tired, and I bet you are too."
Kanae reaches out to shake Coin's hand. "Totally," she agrees. "It'll be better that way."
[OOC] Kanae Fuyuki says, "bluray* use #2" <Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"Yes, but demons hang out there," Coin explains. ...well, sort of explains; she seems to think that's enough for Kanae to get it.
There's no sparks when their hands meet, but there probably should be. You've made... well, reinforced... a bond! Coin shakes energetically and, this time, actually remembers to let go; she held it a little long, but not so long it got awkward.
"Yes... it's been a long day," Coin agrees. She holds up one arm, wiggling her fingers: "And very surprising! I don't think anyone could have predicted it would end like that, in there..." She doesn't have ears that flatten down anymore, but her expression isn't exactly happy. "...or out here. That, I think, might be something we have to talk about."
"But you are right - then, let us go!" At least Coin is apparently cheered up by this potential adventure where she learns about such things as 'skirts'.