How To (Maybe) Help
SeekerofDreams
Aspiring Farmer
- Location
- Selphia
Maki Sonomura, age twenty-eight, was highly aware of all of the complexities of mental health. She had to be, given that she was paid to. Both in her day job as a therapist and, because of her nature as a Persona User, the fact that, if she wanted some extra pocket money, all she had to do was go for a walk in the middle of the night and weaponize her psyche against whatever twisted creatures she found.
Of course, when said like that, it makes it sound a lot more exciting than it actually is.
Those two parts didn't often come together. Mostly because she lived away from the cities where Persona use was a known thing- apart from herself and Maya Amano, or their friends when they visited, she had never met another one in Iwatodai.
And then she got a call from, of all things, the heiress of the Kirijo Group. Apparently, one of her friends- the word itself not used, but Kirijo-chan was footing the bill, and Kei never did anything like that- was in a bad place and needed therapy. And, well, that was what Maki was there for.
She hadn't thought much of it. Even rich people could have traumatized friends- herself, example number one. So she just accepted the job and went about life as usual.
She hadn't expected to encounter a pair of Persona Users. One more powerful than the other, though if she had to guess, she'd say they'd become active at about the same time. It'd come up later, if it was relevant. Maybe it wasn't.
...Of course it would be. The most important part of successfully wielding a Persona was being in good mental health. That was why Mikage-Cho's Midnight Patrol- as Yuka had jokingly called it once- required all new members to undergo a psyche evaluation.
"Aragaki-kun?" She called, just to avoid thinking about the constant issues that had plagued the last seven years every midnight.
"Well, I guess you don't need me hanging around here, do you?" The less powerful of the two asked, before vanishing out the door without waiting for a response.
"Th-that's me..." For a moment, Maki considered increasing the intensity of the calming aura she'd shrouded the office in, before deciding against it. As a fellow Persona User, he'd probably be able to sense the mental manipulation. Even if it really did help.
"Well, I'm Maki Sonomura, and I will be talking with you today... and any other day that you end up coming in." It went without saying that he most likely would be coming in again. After all, she was the only Persona-wielding therapist in all of Iwatodai. And she was good at what she did.
He was defensive, at first. Only answering yes/no questions, not volunteering any information unless asked for... at this point, Maki was positive that, whatever the problem was, it lied in whatever he was doing with his Persona.
"I think I understand," She said, and it was a novel experience, to understand what a roadblock was just five minutes in. "You're... different from most people. And you don't talk about that difference, because there aren't a lot of people who even know it exists, but your issues revolve around it to the point where you can't separate them. Am I doing well so far?" No mentioning Personas just yet. No reason to make him any more uncomfortable than he had to be.
Not that it changed much. Most people who were new to the business were surprised that those directly given power by Philemon could sense things so clearly.
"How...?"
"...Can I tell?" She finished. "Well, back when I was a teenager... kids at my school liked to play this thing called the Persona Game."
Can I show off now?
She didn't see why not. After having her for the better part of a decade now, calling her other self to her side was as easy as breathing. "Let's try this again. I'm Maki Sonomura, and this is Verdandi. It is very nice to meet you."
"Y-you're a Persona User?"
"Yes. I have had Verdandi since I was... not much older than you, actually." It depended when his birthday was, but she didn't feel like asking that right now. "A lot of my old classmates have Personas." As did a number of other people now. She was pretty sure Mark was encouraging the rise of new Personas wherever he went, it seemed like the sort of thing he would do.
Not that they were known outside of Sumaru City and Mikage-Cho. And, of course, small pockets of Iwatodai.
Shinjiro seemed oddly confused by her admission, but didn't say anything more. Which was fine. No need to dig into everything during the first session.
...Also, he might have been slightly stunned from exposure to a Persona so much more powerful than himself. That could also be a reason.
The past week had been... strange. Yuuya had finally gotten around to proposing, which was nice, and Eriko had- for once- not made any news headlines by summoning her Personas to vent in the middle of an unaware city, but...
Well, it was sort of surreal, to actually know what was going on at night. And the fact that she was living a stone's throw away from the epicenter.
Hopefully, when she greeted Shinjiro this time, she didn't let it show too badly.
"You know, I seem to be at a slight disadvantage," She remarked. "You've seen my Persona," Or, at least, her main one, but modern-day Persona Users had a tendency to feel inadequate compared to the Guests of the Velvet Room, so she didn't mention that part, "But I don't know a single thing about yours."
He shrugged. "What's there to know?"
"Well, there's name, element, Arcana... all things that make up part of who you are." The last one might not have been necessary for most people, but Shinjiro had a strong affinity with both the Hierophant and Moon Arcanas, so she wasn't entirely able to tell which one his Persona was.
He seemed hesitant to answer at first, but finally said, "Castor. Hierophant. No real element, just hits things until they fall over." Well, that was certainly a respectable battle strategy, if one lacking the finesse that True Personas were usually known for.
And given the myth, it's sort of fitting, too.
This was also the first time she'd spoken to an Awakened Hierophant since Kei's main Arcana had changed, but that was a bit less important.
A bit more relevant, Shinjiro's Persona was one of a set. And while that didn't always mean anything- she had the other Norns in her possession, but that was as far as the connection went- it happened often enough that she had to ask.
"Castor... that's one of the twins, right? I don't suppose you know where the other one might be?" This one, at least, didn't seem painful for him to answer.
"Y-yeah, actually... It's my- well-" He fumbled with his words for a moment, before saying, "...Well, you've probably seen him. He's the one that tracks static everywhere." Yes, she'd noticed that particular fact about the boy who escorted Shinjiro in.
Hard not to. It's very annoying.
"And do you consider him family?" Maybe that was a bit too quick? But he still answered, either way.
"...As close as I'm ever going to get." He'd hesitated, a bit, before saying that.
Given his prior actions, Maki was pretty sure he'd been fighting back the urge to say yes.
Maki sensed Amun Ra's presence before she entered the apartment.
This was not an unusual thing. Yuuya drifted to wherever he felt he was needed, and given that it had been nearly a month ago, she was surprised it had taken him this long to make it to Iwatodai.
...Then again, he was probably helping Kei clean up Eriko's latest mess... both Michael and Gabriel on the streets of Tokyo. She wasn't sure why that kept making the news- it was just a thing that happened now.
Either way, her fiance was knocked out on the couch and there were leftovers from Wild Duck Burger in the refrigerator. It always had been easy to tell when Yuuya didn't have any pressing responsibilities.
Just for the fact that he hadn't called ahead, she'd leave him there. And maybe put him in charge of dealing with the next few Shadow attacks. Yes, that sounded just perfect.
An unfortunate circumstance, huh? That seems like a bit of an understatement.
She agreed with Verdandi. An 'unfortunate circumstance' was a random traffic accident, or maybe sudden Apathy Syndrome. Someone's mental state slowly slipping until they completely lost control of their Persona and destroyed everything around them was an outright tragedy.
Not that she could blame Kei, for understating it. She would probably have done the same, in his position.
"Now, let me guess. You're going to try to tell me it's not my fault. Or you're going to say that I shouldn't come back, because I don't deserve help." Shinjiro sounded resigned to the second option. Never mind that there were people who had caused an apocalyptic level threat, or even an actual apocalypse, and nobody seemed to have a problem with them anymore.
Not that Shinjiro knew about any of those things. Maybe it was time she fixed that.
"...I've done worse." Depending on how one looked at it anyway. "At least you didn't overwrite your hometown with an idealized version of itself that also happened to be swarming with demons, on the same day that an old curse activated, and give all the local Persona Uses two crises to deal with at once, while the demons you inadvertently called into existence killed various bystanders."
Shinjiro was staring now. Right, after all that, it was a miracle she was still functional. And maybe he was having problems processing. Yuuya said most people did, if they weren't from a place where Personas were a publicly known thing. "...I'm not sure we should be really making this into a competition."
"Probably not."
"So, you've returned to school now? How has that been?"
"It was okay. A few days ago, Aki suggested that we could technically be considered Ken's parents now. I didn't know Mitsuru could freeze a room so quickly."
"And you? How did you respond?"
"...I don't think I shoved him hard enough."
"I've given your words some thought, and have come to a decision."
"And that would be?"
"...Gekkoukan High now has a cooking club."
"...I fucked up."
Coming from Shinjiro, these were not highly unusual words. But Maki felt she needed a bit of context. "What do you mean by that?"
"Okay, so Aki, that total idiot, decided to run off to Tartarus. On his own. Without Mitsuru to scan for him, even. It went badly."
"That does not sound like it was your mistake."
"No, it's just- the rest of us went after him, including the kid. I gave him my Evoker, thought he could use it to defend himself... and then went up Tartarus to get Aki back down. Ken remembered the Evoker, ran after me in an attempt to give it back... And then something that felt like Death showed up while the three of us were arguing about it and we all had to run away."
"...You gave your Evoker to a boy with a natural talent for magic, while all your methods of attack physically hurt you." She tried not to sound too disapproving. She didn't think she succeeded.
At the very least, Shinjiro probably didn't pick up on the fact that Maki was vaguely worried Ken Amada might eventually become a vessel of the apocalypse, even if there was a perfectly logical reason for his Persona being what it was. If Kei didn't think it was something worth worrying about, he wouldn't have mentioned the possibility.
"Look, Aki already read me the riot act, it's just... well, when he did it, it was weird."
"In what way?"
Besides the blatant hypocrisy, anyway, we get that part.
"...He called me 'Aniki'. He hasn't done that since ou- since his sister died." She hadn't known they had a sister, but she could see why it hadn't come up before. At the same time, maybe it'd be something to talk about later. Once they were done with the fact that he'd run into a Shadow nest without any safe method of defending himself.
...Okay, so Mark had done the same basic thing a few times, but at least he was capable of summoning Susano-o freely. She wondered if every group had someone like that...
She'd thought things were going reasonably well. Shinjiro had reported feeling much more comfortable around Ken Amada- which made her uncomfortable for an entirely different reason- as well as getting along better with Akihiko, though he still hadn't attempted summoning his Persona again. Which was fine, plenty of people simply stayed indoors during Dark Hour, and nobody who was aware thought any less of them. It had been fine.
And then he'd picked a fight with Yuuya. For no reason other than to ensure that there were, in fact, a number of Persona Users more powerful than himself and that Maki was not simply an extreme outlier.
Yuuya, at least, decided not to mess around with him- rather, he changed Personas to Vishnu and watched all of Shinjiro's blows simply glance off until he tired himself out from constant Skill use. Which was probably not in the spirit of the fight, but all things considered, it could have gone worse.
Now, if only Shinjiro had accepted healing afterwards instead of just walking away once he could stand again... Maki was going to have words with him next time.
Maybe she'd get Akihiko to help. Either way... she still had a lot of work to do.
Of course, when said like that, it makes it sound a lot more exciting than it actually is.
Those two parts didn't often come together. Mostly because she lived away from the cities where Persona use was a known thing- apart from herself and Maya Amano, or their friends when they visited, she had never met another one in Iwatodai.
And then she got a call from, of all things, the heiress of the Kirijo Group. Apparently, one of her friends- the word itself not used, but Kirijo-chan was footing the bill, and Kei never did anything like that- was in a bad place and needed therapy. And, well, that was what Maki was there for.
She hadn't thought much of it. Even rich people could have traumatized friends- herself, example number one. So she just accepted the job and went about life as usual.
She hadn't expected to encounter a pair of Persona Users. One more powerful than the other, though if she had to guess, she'd say they'd become active at about the same time. It'd come up later, if it was relevant. Maybe it wasn't.
...Of course it would be. The most important part of successfully wielding a Persona was being in good mental health. That was why Mikage-Cho's Midnight Patrol- as Yuka had jokingly called it once- required all new members to undergo a psyche evaluation.
"Aragaki-kun?" She called, just to avoid thinking about the constant issues that had plagued the last seven years every midnight.
"Well, I guess you don't need me hanging around here, do you?" The less powerful of the two asked, before vanishing out the door without waiting for a response.
"Th-that's me..." For a moment, Maki considered increasing the intensity of the calming aura she'd shrouded the office in, before deciding against it. As a fellow Persona User, he'd probably be able to sense the mental manipulation. Even if it really did help.
"Well, I'm Maki Sonomura, and I will be talking with you today... and any other day that you end up coming in." It went without saying that he most likely would be coming in again. After all, she was the only Persona-wielding therapist in all of Iwatodai. And she was good at what she did.
He was defensive, at first. Only answering yes/no questions, not volunteering any information unless asked for... at this point, Maki was positive that, whatever the problem was, it lied in whatever he was doing with his Persona.
"I think I understand," She said, and it was a novel experience, to understand what a roadblock was just five minutes in. "You're... different from most people. And you don't talk about that difference, because there aren't a lot of people who even know it exists, but your issues revolve around it to the point where you can't separate them. Am I doing well so far?" No mentioning Personas just yet. No reason to make him any more uncomfortable than he had to be.
Not that it changed much. Most people who were new to the business were surprised that those directly given power by Philemon could sense things so clearly.
"How...?"
"...Can I tell?" She finished. "Well, back when I was a teenager... kids at my school liked to play this thing called the Persona Game."
Can I show off now?
She didn't see why not. After having her for the better part of a decade now, calling her other self to her side was as easy as breathing. "Let's try this again. I'm Maki Sonomura, and this is Verdandi. It is very nice to meet you."
"Y-you're a Persona User?"
"Yes. I have had Verdandi since I was... not much older than you, actually." It depended when his birthday was, but she didn't feel like asking that right now. "A lot of my old classmates have Personas." As did a number of other people now. She was pretty sure Mark was encouraging the rise of new Personas wherever he went, it seemed like the sort of thing he would do.
Not that they were known outside of Sumaru City and Mikage-Cho. And, of course, small pockets of Iwatodai.
Shinjiro seemed oddly confused by her admission, but didn't say anything more. Which was fine. No need to dig into everything during the first session.
...Also, he might have been slightly stunned from exposure to a Persona so much more powerful than himself. That could also be a reason.
The past week had been... strange. Yuuya had finally gotten around to proposing, which was nice, and Eriko had- for once- not made any news headlines by summoning her Personas to vent in the middle of an unaware city, but...
Well, it was sort of surreal, to actually know what was going on at night. And the fact that she was living a stone's throw away from the epicenter.
Hopefully, when she greeted Shinjiro this time, she didn't let it show too badly.
"You know, I seem to be at a slight disadvantage," She remarked. "You've seen my Persona," Or, at least, her main one, but modern-day Persona Users had a tendency to feel inadequate compared to the Guests of the Velvet Room, so she didn't mention that part, "But I don't know a single thing about yours."
He shrugged. "What's there to know?"
"Well, there's name, element, Arcana... all things that make up part of who you are." The last one might not have been necessary for most people, but Shinjiro had a strong affinity with both the Hierophant and Moon Arcanas, so she wasn't entirely able to tell which one his Persona was.
He seemed hesitant to answer at first, but finally said, "Castor. Hierophant. No real element, just hits things until they fall over." Well, that was certainly a respectable battle strategy, if one lacking the finesse that True Personas were usually known for.
And given the myth, it's sort of fitting, too.
This was also the first time she'd spoken to an Awakened Hierophant since Kei's main Arcana had changed, but that was a bit less important.
A bit more relevant, Shinjiro's Persona was one of a set. And while that didn't always mean anything- she had the other Norns in her possession, but that was as far as the connection went- it happened often enough that she had to ask.
"Castor... that's one of the twins, right? I don't suppose you know where the other one might be?" This one, at least, didn't seem painful for him to answer.
"Y-yeah, actually... It's my- well-" He fumbled with his words for a moment, before saying, "...Well, you've probably seen him. He's the one that tracks static everywhere." Yes, she'd noticed that particular fact about the boy who escorted Shinjiro in.
Hard not to. It's very annoying.
"And do you consider him family?" Maybe that was a bit too quick? But he still answered, either way.
"...As close as I'm ever going to get." He'd hesitated, a bit, before saying that.
Given his prior actions, Maki was pretty sure he'd been fighting back the urge to say yes.
Maki sensed Amun Ra's presence before she entered the apartment.
This was not an unusual thing. Yuuya drifted to wherever he felt he was needed, and given that it had been nearly a month ago, she was surprised it had taken him this long to make it to Iwatodai.
...Then again, he was probably helping Kei clean up Eriko's latest mess... both Michael and Gabriel on the streets of Tokyo. She wasn't sure why that kept making the news- it was just a thing that happened now.
Either way, her fiance was knocked out on the couch and there were leftovers from Wild Duck Burger in the refrigerator. It always had been easy to tell when Yuuya didn't have any pressing responsibilities.
Just for the fact that he hadn't called ahead, she'd leave him there. And maybe put him in charge of dealing with the next few Shadow attacks. Yes, that sounded just perfect.
An unfortunate circumstance, huh? That seems like a bit of an understatement.
She agreed with Verdandi. An 'unfortunate circumstance' was a random traffic accident, or maybe sudden Apathy Syndrome. Someone's mental state slowly slipping until they completely lost control of their Persona and destroyed everything around them was an outright tragedy.
Not that she could blame Kei, for understating it. She would probably have done the same, in his position.
"Now, let me guess. You're going to try to tell me it's not my fault. Or you're going to say that I shouldn't come back, because I don't deserve help." Shinjiro sounded resigned to the second option. Never mind that there were people who had caused an apocalyptic level threat, or even an actual apocalypse, and nobody seemed to have a problem with them anymore.
Not that Shinjiro knew about any of those things. Maybe it was time she fixed that.
"...I've done worse." Depending on how one looked at it anyway. "At least you didn't overwrite your hometown with an idealized version of itself that also happened to be swarming with demons, on the same day that an old curse activated, and give all the local Persona Uses two crises to deal with at once, while the demons you inadvertently called into existence killed various bystanders."
Shinjiro was staring now. Right, after all that, it was a miracle she was still functional. And maybe he was having problems processing. Yuuya said most people did, if they weren't from a place where Personas were a publicly known thing. "...I'm not sure we should be really making this into a competition."
"Probably not."
"So, you've returned to school now? How has that been?"
"It was okay. A few days ago, Aki suggested that we could technically be considered Ken's parents now. I didn't know Mitsuru could freeze a room so quickly."
"And you? How did you respond?"
"...I don't think I shoved him hard enough."
"I've given your words some thought, and have come to a decision."
"And that would be?"
"...Gekkoukan High now has a cooking club."
"...I fucked up."
Coming from Shinjiro, these were not highly unusual words. But Maki felt she needed a bit of context. "What do you mean by that?"
"Okay, so Aki, that total idiot, decided to run off to Tartarus. On his own. Without Mitsuru to scan for him, even. It went badly."
"That does not sound like it was your mistake."
"No, it's just- the rest of us went after him, including the kid. I gave him my Evoker, thought he could use it to defend himself... and then went up Tartarus to get Aki back down. Ken remembered the Evoker, ran after me in an attempt to give it back... And then something that felt like Death showed up while the three of us were arguing about it and we all had to run away."
"...You gave your Evoker to a boy with a natural talent for magic, while all your methods of attack physically hurt you." She tried not to sound too disapproving. She didn't think she succeeded.
At the very least, Shinjiro probably didn't pick up on the fact that Maki was vaguely worried Ken Amada might eventually become a vessel of the apocalypse, even if there was a perfectly logical reason for his Persona being what it was. If Kei didn't think it was something worth worrying about, he wouldn't have mentioned the possibility.
"Look, Aki already read me the riot act, it's just... well, when he did it, it was weird."
"In what way?"
Besides the blatant hypocrisy, anyway, we get that part.
"...He called me 'Aniki'. He hasn't done that since ou- since his sister died." She hadn't known they had a sister, but she could see why it hadn't come up before. At the same time, maybe it'd be something to talk about later. Once they were done with the fact that he'd run into a Shadow nest without any safe method of defending himself.
...Okay, so Mark had done the same basic thing a few times, but at least he was capable of summoning Susano-o freely. She wondered if every group had someone like that...
She'd thought things were going reasonably well. Shinjiro had reported feeling much more comfortable around Ken Amada- which made her uncomfortable for an entirely different reason- as well as getting along better with Akihiko, though he still hadn't attempted summoning his Persona again. Which was fine, plenty of people simply stayed indoors during Dark Hour, and nobody who was aware thought any less of them. It had been fine.
And then he'd picked a fight with Yuuya. For no reason other than to ensure that there were, in fact, a number of Persona Users more powerful than himself and that Maki was not simply an extreme outlier.
Yuuya, at least, decided not to mess around with him- rather, he changed Personas to Vishnu and watched all of Shinjiro's blows simply glance off until he tired himself out from constant Skill use. Which was probably not in the spirit of the fight, but all things considered, it could have gone worse.
Now, if only Shinjiro had accepted healing afterwards instead of just walking away once he could stand again... Maki was going to have words with him next time.
Maybe she'd get Akihiko to help. Either way... she still had a lot of work to do.
