07 October 2009

Tokyo, Yamanote Circle, Eiji's Bar

Evening

"You didn't actually hit him?" Haru shot her friend an incredulous look as Gin admitted to wanting to smash in the face of the man who came in looking for Naoya a couple weeks earlier. It wasn't a confession to be made over the phone, so he had waited for D-VA to come back to town in order to invite Haru over and catch her up on the news.

"Oh, I wanted too. After what that man did to Aya, any mention of him gets me angry." Gin set down the glass he was working with and moved on to the next. Behind her, the band was busy getting set up for their gig that night.

"So, what did you tell this Mr. Ikutsuki?" Haru asked as she closely examined the drink in front of her. "I mean, it's not like you know where he is."

"And I told him as much." Gin said in reply. "Turns out, some guy named Honda worked for him and was trapped in the Circle. He was investigating Naoya when he was killed sometime on the sixth day, and Ikutsuki is trying to pick up the pieces."

"Good luck to him. That bastard has dropped off the face of the earth."

"I know. After he left – great tipper by the way – I contacted our friends in the SDF to let them know about this. They said they'd look into it as apparently this Honda was a known Demon Tamer."

Haru paused, a worried glance at her synthesizer beside her. "Really? Did Ikutsuki say anything about that?"

Gin shook his head in the negative. "No, and I wouldn't have told him anyways."

"Good."

09 October 2009

Kirijo Memorial Hospital, VIP Wing

After School

"Junpei?" Chidori looked up from her drawing as the door to her room swung open. It wasn't time for a meal, or for any checkups, so it had to be him.

But it wasn't. "Sorry." The stranger was a younger girl, but everything about her said she was a Persona user. "My name is Midori Komaki, I'm one of Junpei's kohai's. She used the more formal term for junior in the face of Chidori's glare.

"Then why are you here?" The important word was nearly hissed. She didn't need this completely unnecessary interruption!

"Well, Junpei was busy with some stuff, so he sent me to let you know he'd be late. Well, that, and I wanted to ask you a question." Midori slid further and further into the room, despite the desire of Chidori for her to just leave, and the look in her eyes to communicate that desire.

"And what question would that be?" The STREA member prepared to summon up every indignation she could at any questions regarding her loyal friends.

"When you sewed your clothes, why did you use a number three needle, and not a number two?"

Chidori blinked. "What?"

"Well, I do my own costumes too, so Mitsuru-senpai asked me to look over your stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary, but I noticed that your thread was a little loose going through the threads of the cloth, so I did some checking, and I figured that you were using a needle that was a hair too big for the cloth."

Chidori lost track of time while she argued sewing styles and techniques, Junpei arriving long before she would admit that maybe this Midori knew what she was talking about.

Minatodai Dorm, 2nd Floor Sitting Area

Evening

Junpei crashed into a seat, whipping off his cap at Fuuka's curious expression. "Fuuka. Please promise me that you will never ever allow me to walk into the middle of two girls arguing arts and crafts. Please?" His voice became pleading. "Once was too many!"

11 October 2009

Tartarus

The Dark Hour

It was the first foray into the tower since Shinji's death, and things weren't going too well – at least in Minato's opinion. His current source of problems was from Midori of all people.

"Frost... Ace."

Minato nodded. When he decided to get around to using that Persona that Elizabeth had challenged him to create after Igor offered his improved help, he didn't fully consider the effect it would have on his fellow SEES member.

With Black Frost, there was mounting evidence for a whole Frost 'family' of Personas - Jack, Pyro, Emperor, Ace, Black. While it surprised him that she knew about the first three, the existence of the newest Persona in his repertoire seemed to put her off.

Off to one side, Ken and Akihiko stood. They were there to practice with their newly developed Personas and they took the opportunity to bond a bit with Midori being a casual part of it. Which was why she was up here now instead of Mitsuru or Aigis.

Midori was trying to figure out how to fit Frosty fit into the hierarchy of Frosts, and was quizzing Minato harshly on his versions of the Personas.

What he caught from all this was that Midori already knew about the other types of Frosts, and thought her own version was the ultimate form of the set. Frost Ace put a possible hole in that theory, and has the target of her annoyance.

Oh, and now he was calling Black Frost 'Frosty', just as she did. Which led into another line of thought. What was it about her and Fuuka that allowed them to separate themselves from their Personas and refer to them as distinct entities? And why was he distracting himself.

To mollify Midori, he pointed out that his Personas were transient things, and that Frosty (he did it again!) would be more powerful in the long run than his Frost Ace. Until then, he would avoid using his Ace while she was in the party unless they needed the overlapping strengths.

This seemed to please her, and Minato resolved to check ahead of time whether or not there were more entities in the Frost lineup.

14 October 2009

Minatodai Dorm, 1st Floor Sitting Area

Evening

Fuuka was unsurprised when the chat request came through.

At-Low: Hey.

Fuu-chan: Hello.

At-Low: Weird question for you.

Fuu-chan: ?

At-Low: Can you ask Komaki Midori to get her COMP and plug it in?

Fuu-chan: Um, why?

At-Low: I should be able to unbrick it for her.

Fuu-chan: really?

At-Low: Yep.

Fuu-chan: Alright, I'll get her.

*At-Low whistles while he waits

*At-Low looks at his watch

*At-Low wonders if this is a girl thing

Fuu-chan: Sorry! She's beside me right now and we've got it plugged in.

At-Low: Hey Midori!

Fuu-chan: Midori: Heeeeeeyyy! You watching my show?

At-Low: Sure do! How's classes?

Fuu-chan: Midori: AWESOME!

Fuu-chan: Midori: Are you sure this is safe?

At-Low: Yep! I've got ours working back here, and he agreed that you would be the first person outside Tokyo to get theirs fixed.

Fuu-chan: Midori: What does that mean?

At-Low: I need you to turn it on for a minute, then turn it off.

Fuu-chan: She's doing that now.

Fuu-chan: Done.

At-Low: Excellent. I found her server IP. Alright, I just need a few minutes on my end.

Fuu-chan: Midori: How's Yoo-Hoo?

Fuu-chan: Midori: And Able?

Fuu-chan: Midori: And Gin and Haru and Mari-sensei and Ayane

At-Low: Turn it back on.

Fuu-chan: Midori: Hey! Where did all the apps go?

At-Low: I scrubbed everything and built a new OS. It'll send e-mail and whatnot through the custom server, but all the fun stuff is gone.

Fuu-chan: Komaki is sad. Why?

At-Low: Secret. Tell her I'm sending an e-mail to her giving her details.

At-Low: Make sure she reads it!

At-Low: REALLY

Fuu-chan: Alright

TO: dolly

FROM: atlow

RE: COMP

Hey Dolly! To prevent people from doing more summoning, I've scrubbed the summon, Cathedral and Auction apps. I've restored full functionality that would be found on the system if you bought a new one in the store, so you can play games and the like on it still.

However, I have hidden a function on the system. Whenever it's turned on, it will play SND11 outside of human hearing. That's the cancelling music. So you're a walking unsummoner now, and we all trust you to be nice with it. In order to do this, I had to restore connection to the Babel server (hence the on your email), and it has a very high bandwidth due to the lack of traffic on it now. You could probably livestream your show onto your COMP!

I've attached a list of everyone's e-mails. Bye!

-AtLow

18 October 2009

Tartarus, Lobby

The Dark Hour

After the exams, SEES decided the best way to unwind was to go into Tartarus and beat up shadows. Midori was on her usual spot on the stairs when she wasn't up and was busy checking her e-mail. When she discovered that her COMP still worked in the Dark Hour, she was overjoyed, only to discover that nothing else was. She couldn't expect anyone else to answer during The Dark Hour, but at least she would be able to read and draft responses before sending them out at 12:01 in the morning.

To Yoo-Hoo, she complained about her classes and the tests this past week. Atsuro got a quick message telling him that, no, she wouldn't be getting the new COMP as she wanted to keep this one. It has sentimental value for her.

But her last message, the one that was to be composed to him, that was hard. Igor's warning and the extracted promise were still fresh in her mind. What could she tell the boy that essentially ruled over all Demons, and whose first act was to banish them from the human world? "Hey, are you awake during the hour between midnight and one minute later?"

It was a question that gnawed on her for weeks, even as she kept up the usual social communications.

In the end, it was safer to not say anything at all.

19 October 2009

Gekkokan High School, Teacher's Hallway

After School

Midori looked over her exam marks. For a girl who spent a week unable to do her homework, then a large stretch of time in the hospital, she hadn't done too badly. Out of curiosity, she checked for the rest of the people in the Dorm. Unsurprisingly, Mitsuru, Akihiko and Minato were all at the top of their respective classes. Yukari, Fuuka, Aigis and herself were closer to the middle, while Junpei didn't care either way, and his marks reflected that.

Seeing Aigis behind her, she passed along the pertinent information and then followed up with a question. "Hey, how come you're so bad at some subjects?"

"I have skill at sciences such as math and chemistry. However, I have difficulties when faced with the so-called softer subjects, such as Home Ec, English an Japanese. My marks balance out and I maintain my academic standing."

Although Midori still didn't know why Aigis went to school in the first place, and asking while in the hallway certainly wasn't the best way to go about it, that was for sure. She reminded herself to check in later as she had to go to tennis after class.

Gekkoukan High School, Tennis Court

After Class

Midori watched, helpless, as the rest of the club filed off the court. Those few who could stand Rio's training regimen had finally given up after one too many tirades from the head of the club.

Unfortunately, that left Midori all by herself in the presence of a very irate senior. "You! You're not going to walk out on me too, are you?" The question pinned her to the ground, Midori not best sure how to respond. On one hand, she wanted to turn the accusations back onto Rio, to show her just how she had driven everyone away.

On the other hand, she was supposed to start showing a better understanding of the feelings of others. She wasn't a complete fool. "No, I'm not going to leave." The words were honest. "But maybe you should."

Rio stopped and stared at Midori as though unsure of what she had just said.

Then she left, leaving a sad lonely girl behind.

20 October 2009

Gekkokan High School, School Rooftop

Lunchtime

Midori was dragged along by the others as they came to the roof. Apparently one of Fuuka's friends, a ganguro girl (which automatically placed her on Midori's 'I don't like you' list) was transferring out due to family issues or something like that, and they were all there to give moral support.

She would find out later that it was this Natsuki who started the events leading to Fuuka awakening her Persona, and joining SEES, so Midori felt that maybe the girl wasn't a total loss. But still, what horrid person would choose that fashion statement? The costs in makeup would be ludicrous!

But when Fuuka admitted that Lucia had improved to Juno, Midori began to think hard about what it took to change one's persona, and would the rest of SEES wonder if she stayed with Frosty, never changing, never growing as a person?

Maybe she should talk to Igor.