aterat | [ ONE ] Arrival

Entry tags:

[ ONE ] Arrival

Who; Mitsuru + You
What;Arrival and wandering around the city+narrow escape from tonberries
Where;The residential buildings, market, the cemetery
When; 23rd and throughout the week
Warnings; Will update if any come up.

A. 23rd Residential Buildings

The young woman hasn't had a chance yet to replace her school uniform. There's a slight bit of awkwardness in her mannerisms about that, made most apparent by the way she seems to keep her arms wrapped around herself. Almost as if she thinks she can disappear into herself by doing that. Of course nothing is quite that simple. In the back of her mind she keeps telling herself that there's no need for awkwardness. After all, back home on a Saturday juts like this she'd be traveling through a sea of other students in their uniforms. This isn't home though and she can't help but feel like the uniform just makes her stand out.

There's not too much she can do about that particular fact at the moment though and her mind wanders quickly to the vastness of the situation at hand. Nothing about this place is similar to anything she's ever seen before. She holds the red key as she looks up at the buildings trimmed with their different colors.

"Green, Blue, Gray and," she looks down at hers, "Red. What does it mean? Why are we being categorized like this?"

B. 24th Market District

The market was like absolutely nothing Mitsuru had ever seen before and there was no denying that it was overwhelming. There were things Mitsuru needed though and so she'd made a list and headed out. The list was something she was clinging to as she walked through the open-air market with an icy expression that revealed nothing of her inner thoughts about the place. At least she was quite good at hiding her emotions, which hopefully meant that she wouldn't need to worry about embarrassing herself too much here.

In order to further avoid the potential for embarrassment she also seemed to be doing her best to avoid people in general. All of her attention seemed focused on her list and the various stalls and buildings. Nothing about this place seemed to make sense and she would even go so far as to say it looked like nobody actually planned the layout. Honestly, that in itself was a little frustrating. Frankly, it was just poor design. That wasn't something she needed to get distracted by though. She needed to be focusing on the list and trying to get out of here as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the ever important list slipped from her hand and went flying off away from her.

"Come back here right now," she commanded. Because certainly commanding a piece of paper would work.

C. 24th Just Outside the Cemetery just as it's getting dark

Artemisia had noticed something just as the sun was starting to set. From the brief whisper that came into her mind she couldn't quite figure out what she was sensing. The most logical thing to do here would be to contact Shinjiro and have some sort of backup before she attempted anything. However, she wasn't really thrilled with the idea of getting Shinjiro involved in something dangerous immediately after their mutual arrival here. It was selfish of her, deep down she truly did know that, but everyone could be selfish sometimes. She justified going forward alone as something she needed to do. She'd been the one to sense it and it would make more sense for her to put herself in danger than to let someone else do it for her.

Wasn't it amazing how someone could justify something in their own head?

It was easy enough to locate the hooded figure as it rounded a corner. All she could catch a glimpse of at the moment was it's heavy brown robe from the back. From a distance it looked to be a fairly decent size, perhaps around four feet in height? She couldn't quite tell, which only compelled her to try to get closer to it. She continued after it, using Artemisia to keep track of it every time it sped up around a corner. Eventually it stopped attempting to flee just outside what appeared to be a cemetery. It wasn't somewhere she'd been yet, though it wasn't as though she was too familiar with anything here as of yet.

When the creature turned around she steeled itself against it's hollow eyes. It reminded her considerably of a shadow and yet she knew that wasn't what it was. A terror began to prick at the back of her mind and instinctively she reached for the Evoker on her belt. She brought the gun to her head and pressed (making quite a sight for anyone to stumble upon).

"I command thee," she shouted with an authoritarian voice. With an explosion the Persona appeared hovering slightly above her.The creature began to shuffle closer to her, closing the gap to where it was almost close enough to touch. With a flourish of her own rapier she pointed Artemesia forward to attack as she quickly maneuvered backwards. A flurry of ice like daggers formed in from of Persona and then cascaded into the green skinned creature in front of her. It stumbled back allowing for more distance between the two of them. The terror that had only been prickling at her mind had started to push down the closer it got.

To make matters worse she was fairly certain she was sensing another somewhere nearby. This was not a battle that she should be taking, though a part of her did want to stay to finish it off. She stole a glance back and noticed that it was slowly getting back up on it's feet and heading her way. She needed to make a choice. Flee or stay.

In the end she chose something in between. Her goal now was to gather intel. Unfortunately, her Persona was a bit more geared towards combat than support, which meant her scanning took longer than Yamagishi would have. This ended up leaving her slightly vulnerable to the growing sense of dread and anguish that the creature seemed to dredge up the closer it got. Perhaps flee would have been the better choice.

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She let out a sigh and almost said something about why he had to be this way, but she caught herself. Now wasn't the time for them to be arguing with one another. Still, in a strange way it was comforting to know that he hadn't changed despite what had happened.

"Akihiko isn't here. I'm afraid it's just you and me." She'd checked. A few times. Though, she didn't particularly want to admit that she'd spent time after arriving trying to find Akihiko, or anyone else, familiar.

"Not a big deal." It would be tough, dealing with Akihiko's reaction to his being here, but that wasn't the only reason he thought that. He smirked that subtle, nearly imperceptible smirk of his. "Means we don't have to run off after him every time something catches his eye."

He did make that point, though, of saying 'we'. They were a team here, for better or worse, and he was still her friend. Recent decisions couldn't change that. She deserved to have a hell of a lot better at her back, but she was stuck with him, and he was going to make sure that didn't count for nothing.

"I suppose that is true." A tiny smile appeared on her own face and she moved a hand up to cover her chuckle. It was nice to see Shinjiro smile, though she knew better than to point that out. Or comment on it at all.

"He was quite the handful in those first ventures into Tartarus wasn't he?"

"Just the first times?" He scoffed at that, shaking his head. "You're talkin' about the guy who led a Shadow to your doorstep and ended up in the hospital, right?"

Edited 2022-05-11 05:27 (UTC)

"You have no idea how difficult it was to deal with him after that," she put a hand to her head and sighed in exasperation. "He kept trying to go out despite his injuries. I was constantly having to remind he that he'd be more of a hindrance to us than an asset." Come to think of it, it would have been nice to have had Shinjiro there then as backup. Having to reign Akihiko in on her own had been quite the task.

"I've known him for a while, Mitsuru. I've got an idea." He shook his head. He'd met the guy at the hospital after his check-up, and he'd been in contact with him before that. He knew how stubborn Akihiko could be. "He's too busy focusing on bein' the hero and not enough on just bein' there." He'd been like that since the fire. SEES just gave him an outlet.

And Shinjiro was acutely aware of how hypocritical he sounded making that observation, but that didn't mean he was going to admit it.

"It would have been nice to have a more experienced hand in persuading him to rest," she said with a sad little smile. Instead, that role had been left solely to her and Akihiko had fought her every step of the way. He'd wanted nothing more than to just rush back into battle despite his injuries.

There it is. Shinjiro, if you hadn't left it wouldn't have been a problem. She hadn't said it, but she hadn't really needed to. But it wasn't that simple, was it? Mitsuru didn't know what she was saying, her sad little smile told him that. She wasn't passive aggressive.

"Tch," he shook his head. "Not like I can rein him in any more than you can. Once Aki gets an idea in his head, off he goes."

"I don't know, we did a decent job of catching up to him at least," she respond with a gentle expression. More often than not they'd finally caught up with him after he'd been knocked down. It'd probably been a small favor that they hadn't been able to go further into Tartarus with just the three of them. She fell silent for a moment and then looked down awkwardly.

"Shinjiro, there...I should tell you something." After all, she had said she'd try to be more open with the others, hadn't she? Still...she wasn't even sure where to start.

He chuckled, shaking his head. He'd allowed himself to get caught up in the moment, too, which was blown to hell when she added the next bit. He frowned, but didn't back away. He'd done that enough, hadn't he?

"Okay. I'm right here."

She folded her arms across her chest and looked away from him. Why had she brought this up at all? "Perhaps now isn't the time." But then when? If she didn't now, then they'd more than likely just go about ignoring the things unsaid. But maybe that was best? Did he really need to know about the betrayal and the threatening Fall? They still weren't even certain themselves as to what he'd meant by that.

"We've only just arrived and...circumstances being what they are, I'm not certain that it's overwhelming for us both."

"Hey, you brought it up." He rolled his shoulder in a shrug. "I ain't trying to force you into anything, Mitsuru, but...secrets got us in this mess, didn't they?"

He'd secluded them all, tried to handle everything on his own, and for what? No one benefitted in the end, Ken had ended up fighting the one thing he'd never needed to, he'd gotten involved with Strega...

"All I'm sayin' is this place is weird enough already."

"I-I know you're right," more so than he could possibly know. "But...it's quite unlike us, isn't it?" And perhaps that had ben one of their problems. She let out a sigh.

"Ikutsuki lied to us." That was as good of a start as any.

"Clammin' up really worked out for us." That had been his biggest problem in the end. No one had discussed what had happened with Castor, how it had crushed a house and killed a boy's other. They'd swept it under the rug, leaving Shinjiro to face the consequences of his own consciousness and to wonder why no one wanted to punish him for the crime he'd committed. No one even saw it for what it had been, and so he'd punished himself for it.

"Ikutsuki? What do you mean?"

"I..." she stumbled over her words and fell silent again. Usually it was so easy for Mitsuru to speak but this topic made her throat close up as her chest began to tighten. It felt somehow like her insides were being twisted all over again. After a few long seconds she shook her head.

"Everything he told us was a lie. He was using us." The three of them more so than any of the others actually, after all they'd been believing these lies the longest. "Destroying the shadows was never going to end the Dark Hour, instead all it was doing was melding them together to create Death itself. He pushed us to do that to bring about something he referred to as the Fall." She didn't look up at him as she spoke and it was probably obvious to him that she was trying very hard to control her voice. "He never wanted to eliminate the Dark Hour."

He took a few moments to process what she'd set. Just the thought of being used like that, of his friends being used like that was enough to make him want to punch those corny puns right out of his mouth, but this wasn't about him. Sure, it pissed him off, royally, but it was all a lot more intense for Mitsuru. She'd been at it a lot longer than both of them had, after all.

"Fall of what?" He had a sinking feeling in his stomach, but he had to know now. Whatever it was, unwitting or not, he'd played a part in helping it along. They all had.

The silence stretched on before she finally looked over at him, though it was only a quick glance before she returned to looking down.

"Everything. It seems my grandfather was obsessed with the idea of creating the Fall, using Death to bring about the end of humanity. He...spoke about it like it would be some sort of ...gift. He was truly insane. He...intended to sacrifice us on crosses to summon Death. He was going to use Aigis to do so but my father..."

"He was damned good at hidin' it." Were there signs? He was dedicated to studying the shadows, kept them all focused on it, but was there more? Something he should have seen? Could this have been prevented? If her grandfather was involved, that meant this had been the Kirijo Group's point all along. All of humanity? Was all they were doing really that big a deal?

Did that mean the things they were seeing, doing, were happening all over Japan? Outside Japan? Shit...

"Wait. What about your father?" Her Grandfather had been responsible for all this, she'd said, so...

"I've gone over it a million times in my head, if I should have noticed his lies earlier. It was far too easy for him to manipulate me all this time...." And it was far too easy for her to fall into her own head with this line of thinking. At least he managed to snap her out of it by inquiring about her father.

"He tried to stop him. To save us. But..." her voice cracked and waivered. "Ikutsuki shot him."

"He..." What? It was a lot to take in. Ikutsuki made some weird sacrifice of them to end the world, Kirijo-san tried to stop him, Ikutuski...

...Ikutsuki took her father away. All of this was so fucked, but so much of it had been avoidable, and now...he didn't even know what it meant, what they were facing, and because of his own stupid decisions, they were facing it alone. Well, not alone, they had him, and Mitsuru and Akihiko had each other, but.

"I..." He swallowed. If he'd known what they'd been facing, maybe he wouldn't have-

-that didn't matter. He couldn't change the past, what he'd done two hours ago, any more than he could change two years ago. But he could change what he did from now on. He could be here. "...I'm so sorry, Mitsuru."

Tears had welled up in her eyes and she continued to look down at the ground as if it were the most fascinating thing that had ever existed. Maybe if she looked down there he wouldn't notice her tears. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel for her given his own situation. It seemed selfish.

"It's...it's alright. He...he jumped off the tower after that. Ending his own life rather than facing consequences for what he'd done." But the damage had already been done. He'd murdered her father and he'd manipulated them all into bringing about this Fall, whatever it would end up being. He hadn't even finished telling them all of what the Fall entailed before he jumped off. So now they were just left alone with an incomplete picture of a looming disaster beyond anything they could have prepared for.

"Fucking coward." He shook his head. He wanted to reach out to her, to let her know she wasn't alone, and that she wasn't having to hold it all herself, but he didn't. He did move to her side, though, a strong presence at her side, standing straighter than usual, as though that would will her to understand what he meant when he moved closer, that she could rely on him.

"And what now?"

"I don't know what I would have done had he not chosen that path himself," she said weakly. In the moment she'd been reaching for her weapon and the amount of anger she'd felt...well, she could only imagine what she might have done. She looked over at him as he moved closer and let herself relax. It was a strangely subconscious reaction that she took no note of.

"I believe we're all of a similar mindset, that we must continue to fight whatever this Fall may be. However...we know very little about what's to come. From what he said the implications are truly massive." What he'd said made it sound as though her grandfather wanted to bring about the end of all of humanity using some sort of Shadow connected to Tartarus. "If only I'd been able to stop him so that we could get more information out of him." But she'd failed at that, just as she'd failed at everything else.

"Don't do that to yourself, Mitsuru." He wasn't surprised she was internalizing it. It's what she'd always done when something didn't go right, and with all the loss she'd faced recently (not that he was thinking that his was that much of an impact) it was likely even worse than usual. He moved around her, stood in front of her, and reached out, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"You can't hold yourself responsible for Ikutsuki. You didn't know. Doubt your dad did, either, but you and Aki, Iori, Takaba...all'a you, you're strong. If there's a way to stop this Fall from coming, you'll find it."

The movement caused her to blush for a reason she wouldn't be able to explain even if asked and she looked down.

"I should have known." There had to have been signs, something she'd missed, that would have clued her in to his true intentions. "My sole purpose in deciding to use my Persona was to protect my father and I failed at that. I won't fail to stop the Fall." She'd decided that already, she would dedicate herself fully to that. However...it hardly stopped her from internalizing the blame for the entire situation. "However, I accept the role the Kirijo group, and I, played in things."

[ ONE ] Arrival

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