If she didn't have her passive UMI field, she would be horribly ostracized. With it, she's considered pretty cool, though not beloved.
......
That's a significant alteration to her classmates normal view of things, with the end result of Amu getting to not worry about how she is perceived.
I feel like pointing out that Amu has a natural baseline Charisma score of 4 on her sheet and Appearance of 3. Unless I'm badly mistaken about how these classifications are meant to work, I was under the impression those are meant to be purely physical attributes and have nothing to do with psychic auras or psionic ability.
Which kinda implies her looks and demeanor alone are viewed as highly attractive by people in a conventional sense, irrespective of any additional auras that might be influencing their minds.
This quest being what it is, Amu very well might sport an attraction aura. But Charisma/Appearance of 4 and 3 says she'd be plenty attractive even without it, to the point that I can believe she'd be able to rock up with a delinquent look and have people assume it's a fashion thing.
Which, canonically, it is. Her mother coordinated that look for her and bought her wardrobe. She did the same for Ami, except she went for the angel look on her, instead of "goth-punk".
I feel like pointing out that Amu has a natural baseline Charisma score of 4 on her sheet and Appearance of 3. Unless I'm badly mistaken about how these classifications are meant to work, I was under the impression those are meant to be purely physical attributes and have nothing to do with psychic auras or psionic ability.
Which kinda implies her looks and demeanor alone are viewed as highly attractive by people in a conventional sense, irrespective of any additional auras that might be influencing their minds.
This quest being what it is, Amu very well might sport an attraction aura. But Charisma/Appearance of 4 and 3 says she'd be plenty attractive even without it, to the point that I can believe she'd be able to rock up with a delinquent look and have people assume it's a fashion thing.
Which, canonically, it is. Her mother coordinated that look for her and bought her wardrobe. She did the same for Ami, except she went for the angel look on her, instead of "goth-punk".
It's an abstraction. Attribute scores reflect who Amu is, when she doesn't make any effort.
So she's actually quite adorable, but if there is any passive emotion bias going on, then that would be factored in as well. Otherwise I'd need to remember to constantly add a +1 whenever I use the score, which would be pointless.
.....Is it possible for you to tell us if, in the hypothetical scenario Amu were to end up in a zone that nullifies all psychic effects, passive or active, we should expect to see a sudden surprise drop in rank for one or more of her Attributes scores?
.....Is it possible for you to tell us if, in the hypothetical scenario Amu were to end up in a zone that nullifies all psychic effects, passive or active, we should expect to see a sudden surprise drop in rank for one or more of her Attributes scores?
The Chara system is designed to have the psychics absorb their Charas as they grow older and don't need the training wheels any more.
Miki is a blatant break of that system, and Amu's ability to summon Ran/Su/Dia at all is an oddity as well.
I'm don't think there's any big bad-end coming for them, they are just becoming part of the 'base' Amu.
That's the primary possibility I'm worried about! It's the easiest way to write them out of the story, which I'm worried will happen. We had to spend our one boon on just Miki, and we ended up with a version of Miki who has had 4 lines in the quest's 28k wordcount, only 1 of those lines being longer than 2 words, and hasn't been in a single scene outside of Amu's house.
That's the primary possibility I'm worried about! It's the easiest way to write them out of the story, which I'm worried will happen. We had to spend our one boon on just Miki, and we ended up with a version of Miki who has had 4 lines in the quest's 28k wordcount, only 1 of those lines being longer than 2 words, and hasn't been in a single scene outside of Amu's house.
She'll show up. There hasn't been a lot of reason for her to be in the story yet, because it's been mostly establishing other characters, but I'm not robbing you of her.
If you'd chosen to interact more with Ami, then that would have happened already. Alas.
Your other speculation is spot on, however. It's hard to handle a story with too many characters, and if they were all present then every event would have a minimum of five if Amu is alone.
I can't deal with that. I'd inevitably mess up somewhere, either by forgetting them or by making them cardboard, or you'd just get tired of the absolute constant crowd scenes… I have no idea how Amu dealt with that, for that matter.
The manga in fact tended to ignore them most of the time. I don't want to do that to Miki; she gets her own personality and likes, she won't just get sidelined when it's convenient… which, ironically, is why she's not here right now. She's a person, not a class feature.
The others, I gave myself an excuse to have them present only when I feel like it.
I wonder what, if anything, it'll take to fully restore Ran, Su, and Dia. I get the feeling the charas' role as characters is deliberately being minimized to conserve narrative focus for other characters and plot threads, and that makes me worry about their intended fate.
The Chara system is designed to have the psychics absorb their Charas as they grow older and don't need the training wheels any more.
Miki is a blatant break of that system, and Amu's ability to summon Ran/Su/Dia at all is an oddity as well.
I'm don't think there's any big bad-end coming for them, they are just becoming part of the 'base' Amu.
Nero probably has the right of it here. Though I'd like to add and speculate a little further on how this might be exactly working.
In the story we've had a reference where she refers to the ones merged with her as 'her', as in they are parts/aspects of her. There they can still be called out though, it's clearly still possible for them to have their previous independent existence, even if only temporarily. And one would presume they would have kept all the abilities that made them who they are as well then. Though this creates a bit of an interesting question when they're so connected/integrated now.
You see in the standard chara system people still have to work towards getting good at their dreams themselves once the chara disappears back inside of themselves, basically there is no free lunch. But there the chara aren't actually really gone in Amu's case but made a part of her at some level, then what happens with their skills while together as one? A question where I can only but recall how in a recent chapter we saw a discussion where Amu is said to be much better then the most athletic classmates in running and from implication I'd guess perhaps sports in general as well. Either way this is something which in series she was not that good at and she was only capable of when she did a low level transform with Ran. So based on the odd way Amu refers to the others internally and this data point, one can then start wondering if Amu is in some kind of permanent low level chara transformation with Ran, Su and Dia. A setup where she'd technically be obeying the chara systems standard outcome of chara disappearing when you grow up, while also basically side stepping it by making them a part of her normal self.
If it is working like that then Amu is cheating (loophole abusing) the system on both sides really, losing no one while keeping all the bonuses.
If she didn't have her passive UMI field, she would be horribly ostracized. With it, she's considered pretty cool, though not beloved.
That's a significant alteration to her classmates normal view of things, with the end result of Amu getting to not worry about how she is perceived.
Not saying someone deserves to be ostracized for that, but in the context of 'JP middle schooler social dynamics', Amu is a blatant aberration to how things normally work, and she isn't doing anything other than UMI to achieve that result.
This could also be explained via some kind of low level psychic exchange speculated on by @Quine a bit earlier. In which case the other psychics in class are getting some additional information from her really which they can then integrate in to their overall view of her.
It's possible that in schools that have no psychics things might have developed more like you speculated then though. And certainly one can wonder why Amu left her original school, it's something that was never really talked about in Shugo Chara so far I know. But it feels a little unusual that some one switches schools.
I've speculated with Baughn before, not in my capacity as his editor/beta (or before then rather), that Amu was bullied at her old school. Or otherwise in some toxic environment at the school.
The primary evidence is her Chara, the fact that she has three of them all based around trying to fit into different crowds that she dreams of being. And then there's what she acted like without them, as her baseline, which was something else altogether.
(Now, Ami on the other hand, doesn't have most of Amu's 'negative' social aspects, and is beloved by her class. You can see the underlaying math here.)
I've speculated with Baughn before, not in my capacity as his editor/beta (or before then rather), that Amu was bullied at her old school. Or otherwise in some toxic environment at the school.
The primary evidence is her Chara, the fact that she has three of them all based around trying to fit into different crowds that she dreams of being. And then there's what she acted like without them, as her baseline, which was something else altogether.
Amu's parents are big believers in free-range parenting. They've never limited Amu or Ami much, if at all. So long as they don't do anything that would harm them, or interfere with growing up, Amu's parents were fine with pretty much whatever. This did not quite extend to "Hide a teenage boy in your bedroom", but... er, even their reaction to that was far more muted than I'd have expected. Amu didn't even get grounded. Presumably, because she was trying to help, merely doing it in ways that (they thought) were problematic, and they didn't want to push back against that.
(Amu has never told her parents about her magical girl side. She really should.)
They also believe in expressing yourself, and neither has anything like a normal career. Amu's father is a freelancer wildlife photographer, apparently good enough at it to make a living off it (!), which puts him in rarified company indeed. Perhaps not Attenborough level, but close. Amu's mother edits a popular magazine; I don't recall precisely what her job title was, but I got the impression she was in charge overall. Also that it isn't a very stressful job; she always seems to have free time.
The clothing style she set Amu up with was, of course, "goth cute". Or... something along those lines! In reality, Amu's clothing style doesn't match any common style whatsoever; she makes up her own, and- Amu, it must be said, likes it. This isn't something she's being forced into. She enjoys looking the way she does. It shows off her personality, which doesn't fit in any pigeonholes whatsoever.
It should have been fine.
But this is Japan. They have a saying for it: The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Amu is not very... hammer-able. I have no doubt that if anyone tried, she'd react by getting spikier. I do have doubts about what that means, exactly -- was she the bully? The bullied? "Merely" ostracized, or something less dramatic?
I don't want to blame her parents for it, because then I'd have to argue that Amu's current personality is somehow wrong, and I don't want to do that. I love how she is, warts and all, and she's going to become an absolutely amazing young woman. Couldn't ask for a better spokesperson for the psionic generation, really. But...
But. It's obvious that they've taken a slightly different tactic with Ami.
Also, Amu swapped schools for fourth grade. There's other possible explanations. I doubt they moved -- her room very much looks like she's lived there for years, as does the rest of the house -- but this is Seiyo Academy we're talking about, and Tsukasa may have given them a reason to transfer. It's still... well, it's all quite suspicious.
I've speculated with Baughn before, not in my capacity as his editor/beta (or before then rather), that Amu was bullied at her old school. Or otherwise in some toxic environment at the school.
If there was any bullying, it's unlikely to have been physical.
I always got the impression that her "Cool-and-Spicy" reputation predated Seiyo, from her introductory chapter. The first thing we hear about her is mention of teachers from other schools in the area being scared of her (as well as her either beating or beating up some school's soccer team). And while they almost certainly are not (entirely) true, the ones who mentioned these were delinquents from some OTHER school trying to shake down Seiichiro Suzuki for cash. That means said rumours probably didn't start at Seiyo, if they were circulating around other schools. And the fact the delinquents were scared she'd beat them up makes it fairly unlikely she was a victim of any actual physical bullying.
Social isolation, I could see being possible. The rumors could be seen as a form of bullying. But then, you're getting into that sticky debate of whether it was accidental or deliberate (or whether accidental bullying should count as bullying, etc). And if it was deliberate, Amu herself didn't apparently realize it, since the first thing she asks herself after the bullies flee is where those rumors came from. She evidently didn't remember having any enemies she would immediately suspect of it, which IMO put a cap on how toxic an environment her previous school(s) could have been.
Amu's mind might not have been healthy, but I always got the impression is was more due to her own internal problems rather than anything especially external.
Amu's mind might not have been healthy, but I always got the impression is was more due to her own internal problems rather than anything especially external.
She was inwardly panicking and unsure, scared of approaching people, while externally trying to project a 'cool and spicy' appearance to excuse the lack of approaching people. That's... okay. It's not ideal. But it's a standard trope for adolescents, and usually they get over it. It's hardly some sort of mental defect.
I can (and will) argue that she seemed to have more trouble with projecting any sort of appearance whatsoever than the average girl, as indicated by her chosen one being something that didn't take much effort, and which she didn't actually want. But that's neither here nor there. Still nowhere near a mental illness.
Her character arc was mostly about ceasing to project a persona at all, and instead just showing her raw self. Said self was always a really nice girl.
Also, Amu swapped schools for fourth grade. There's other possible explanations. I doubt they moved -- her room very much looks like she's lived there for years, as does the rest of the house -- but this is Seiyo Academy we're talking about, and Tsukasa may have given them a reason to transfer. It's still... well, it's all quite suspicious.
My conclusion is, her parents made the decision for her and Amu simply didn't disagree. We know the goth aesthetic wasn't actually her preference, but Amu never racked up the nerve to say no to her mother slapping it over her. An acceptance likely made easier by a lack of friends. I got the impression she didn't have many, if any, friends at her old school(s), or they would probably have been brought up at some point. At least, none she was close enough with that she'd feel anguished leaving to Seiyo over.
IIRC, her only pre-Seiyo friend we know of was Yua and they only spent kindergarten together. And Amu didn't even remember her very much. Whether her lack of prior friends was due to bullying, or just Amu not naturally fitting in with anybody is arguable (though personally, the feeling I got watching the show was more the latter).
I especially don't think the decision was made by Amu, because that girl had an unhealthy lack of agency early on, with her main issue being an inability to express her true feelings to other people. She wouldn't have asked her parents if she could transfer, she'd have bit the bullet and gone with the flow even if she hated her old school.
Also, let's face it - Seiyo would be an expensive school. It's attended by some very rich people and at least one VIP CEO, ontop of being an elevator school to university level. There's no way the school fees are cheap. Her parents are very laissez-faire, but I'd think even they might have balked at the idea of giving Amu a present that expensive, unless they were already considering it or were brainwashed and I don't believe brainwashing was involved.
I have 2 theories about why her parents transferred her. The first is that her dear mama and papa took a look at how classy and chic the whole setup was, loved the fashionable uniforms and thought seeing Amu wearing it would be cute and thought that having a graduation certificate from there would mark their daughter as high-class and prestigious. That sounds somewhat controlling at face-value, but it would have been done in genuine belief that was the best for Amu (and to be fair, it would have turned out for the best).
The other theory I have is that, one day at work, Amu's mother happened to strike up a casual chat with either her much-admired celebrity psychic Nobuko Saeki who she's worked with as part of her job editing Housewives' Knowledge, or HER much-admired astrologer friend Tsukasa Amakawa, who also writes a column for the magazine Petit Lemon. And that during said chat, it was suggested to Midori Hinamori that her daughter would very much benefit from transferring to a school run by Tsukasa, as they saw good things in the future come from it.
I can imagine Amu's mother saying "OMG yes" after thinking about it for maybe all of 2 seconds at most.
Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Nov 12, 2023 at 12:10 AM, finished with 109 posts and 14 votes.
[X] Plan: Dream Again - [X] When Amu thinks Saaya will be able to actually hear her: "Saaya, I know you don't want to hear from me right now, or probably ever, but we don't have time. I've given you what I got, back when I was first learning about all this. The day we met, actually. The Lock is going to give you control, help you, and I'm going to try and lend you my power as well. I don't want you to die Saaya. I'm sorry for what's happened, but we are in this together now. If you can, remember that I was trying to help, when you Dreamt last." -- [X] This isn't the best speech, and that should work in our favour. Saaya will hopefully be able to tell that we aren't using UMI or reading her mind, that this is just plain old human speech.
- [X] If it can be done and still remove the Lock after, transform before the next action.
- [X] Remove the Humpty Lock, and loop it around the unresponsive Saaya's neck. It will boost her resistance further, yes, but that's what we want. Push her hazy partial immunity into the full bloom of Psionics, to bring clarity to the confusion, while giving her back the skills she is so scared of someone else using on her.
-- [X] If she isn't moving even after that, then we will have to take a wider view. Attack her one last time, mentally, to force her to defend herself. Not with full power, but enough to force her to react and wake up.
-- [X] If she is the cause of the rift, then her control should be improved enough to fix it.
--- [X] The Lock took the brunt of this rifts rebound earlier when we looked at it, so we are going to need to lend our power to Saaya.
[X] Plan: Dream Again
- [X] Remove the Humpty Lock, and loop it around the unresponsive Saaya's neck. It will boost her resistance further, yes, but that's what we want. Push her hazy partial immunity into the full bloom of Psionics, to bring clarity to the confusion, while giving her back the skills she is so scared of someone else using on her.
-- [X] If she isn't moving even after that, then we will have to take a wider view. Attack her one last time, mentally, to force her to defend herself. Not with full power, but enough to force her to react and wake up.
-- [X] If she is the cause of the rift, then her control should be improved enough to fix it.
--- [X] The Lock took the brunt of this rifts rebound earlier when we looked at it, so we are going to need to lend our power to Saaya.
The other theory I have is that, one day at work, Amu's mother happened to strike up a casual chat with either her much-admired celebrity psychic Nobuko Saeki who she works with as part of her job editing Housewives' Knowledge, or HER much-admired astrologer friend Tsukasa Amakawa, who also writes a column for the magazine. And that during said chat, it was suggested to Midori Hinamori that her daughter would very much benefit from transferring to a school run by Tsukasa, as they saw good things in the future come from it.
I can imagine Amu's mother saying "OMG yes" after thinking about it for maybe all of 2 seconds at most.
Amu is also heavily involved with Tsukasa's precog plot. I wouldn't go as far as to say the school exists for her sake, but she's- well, she's a core element of his overall plot, whatever it actually is. The question isn't whether or not he wants her there; it's whether or not he needed to do anything, or could have. That depends on how his precog works. In the counterfactual universe where Amu never went to Seiyo, would Tsukasa somehow have seen that she would be useful there, hence making that outcome paradoxical? Or is Amu only a possible feature of the precog plot because she was already going to be there, and would have interfered no matter what?
The way I think about precog, in general, is as follows:
If your ability to see the future means that certain outcomes are impossible, because you would have seen them coming and prevented them, then (a) you will never see that outcome, but (b) also, it won't happen, because that would be paradoxical. Precogs function by eliminating the timelines they would have otherwise worked against. Whatever's left, however unlikely, is what happens.
In which case... Tsukasa may have pulled Amu into his school. He may have waived the fees for her; she might be there on a scholarship. I think that's likely enough. She's not dumb; her low intelligence score, on the character sheet, is because she lacks the experience and wisdom to use her mind well; not a lack of raw intelligence. Miki has 3 dots instead of 2, but that difference is entirely a matter of skill.
But he would only be able to do so if one or two things is correct. Either:
- She would have been there regardless, and interfered with the Utau/Ikuto/Hikaru situation, hence coming to his attention. Her interference wouldn't have worked as well as it did in canon; she might not have been a force for good at all. Tsukasa would have tried to avoid that, and... therefore, he wouldn't know that was even a possibility. The only outcome he actually sees is the one that's happened.
- She would not have been there. Somehow, this led to bad enough things that there are no timelines without Amu in Seiyo. I find that fairly unlikely.
...
I realise my reasoning has more holes than swizz cheese, and there's a number of other ways precog can work, especially if you don't assume it's perfect. Which we probably shouldn't. Don't construe what's above as a guarantee that that's how it works in this story; it's how precog works in the Clockwork Rocket trilogy, which is a very, very different scenario.
But it's interesting to think about, even if my conclusion is still... "We don't know, and it may be unknowable."
If your ability to see the future means that certain outcomes are impossible, because you would have seen them coming and prevented them, then (a) you will never see that outcome, but (b) also, it won't happen, because that would be paradoxical. Precogs function by eliminating the timelines they would have otherwise worked against. Whatever's left, however unlikely, is what happens.
Or, the alternate way of looking at that would be.... the precog simply can't precog any event that is changeable. Only the ones that can't be changed.
I assume this is the kind of clairvoyance where the precog can't see multiple possible futures at once, only a single one, as being able to see mutually exclusive possible futures would be impossible under those rules. A precog can only pick one to work towards, after all (thereby working against the other as soon as they do).
So under those rules, I'd be surprised if precogs saw very much at all. At least, unless the world they operated in happens to be completely deterministic right down to the precog's own actions, in which case having precognition is also functionally useless, as the precog never actually gets to make any changes to the future anyway, no matter what they see.
Or, the alternate way of looking at that would be.... the precog simply can't precog any event that is changeable. Only the ones that can't be changed.
I assume this is the kind of clairvoyance where the precog can't see multiple possible futures at once, only a single one, as being able to see mutually exclusive possible futures would be impossible under those rules. A precog can only pick one to work towards, after all (thereby working against the other as soon as they do).
So under those rules, I'd be surprised if precogs saw very much at all. At least, unless the world they operated in happens to be completely deterministic right down to the precog's own actions, in which case having precognition is also functionally useless, as the precog never actually gets to make any changes to the future anyway, no matter what they see.
Though, if we're talking the Clockwork Rocket model, it doesn't have precogs in the sense that Shugo Chara does. What it's got is a 4D universe with slightly different physics than ours, where it's relatively easy to send information (or an entire rocket!) back in time, and there are no limitations at all on what information you can send...
This turned out to be a problem. Once this system was in place, it caused the protagonists to no longer be capable of creating interesting inventions, because anything interesting by definition would get sent back in time and therefore couldn't have been invnted, so the only consistent timelines were ones in which they came into existence spontaneously or else didn't come into existence at all, and-- surprise-- the latter option was far more likely. So inventions just didn't happen.
...
It might be for the best that Shugo Chara's precogs aren't that capable.
Once this system was in place, it caused the protagonists to no longer be capable of creating interesting inventions, because anything interesting by definition would get sent back in time and therefore couldn't have been invnted, so the only consistent timelines were ones in which they came into existence spontaneously or else didn't come into existence at all, and-- surprise-- the latter option was far more likely. So inventions just didn't happen.
There's a solution to that - someone just needs to invent something that alters the universe's laws of physics to limit how much information can be sent back in time.
From that point onwards, there is now a consistent timeline where more inventions can happen without spontaneously appearing from the future.
There's a solution to that - someone just needs to invent something that alters the universe's laws of physics to limit how much information can be sent back in time.
From that point onwards, there is now a consistent timeline where more inventions can happen without spontaneously appearing from the future.
Also, let's face it - Seiyo would be an expensive school. It's attended by some very rich people and at least one VIP CEO, ontop of being an elevator school to university level. There's no way the school fees are cheap. Her parents are very laissez-faire, but I'd think even they might have balked at the idea of giving Amu a present that expensive, unless they were already considering it or were brainwashed and I don't believe brainwashing was involved.
Which is btw is why it can "stomach" quirks of it's students better than other schools. It's for rich and it's not "strict and proppa" one. It's made by default with students having quirks in mind so less nail hammering. And that is actual reason why parents switched Amu's school.
PS. Like probably quarter of the student body would've got "nail" treatment in different school.
PPS. Essentially general crowd in the school is rich enough that "dangerous deviation that would be harmful to society if not stamped out early" is "oh, that's just harmless quirk, look in different direction" and you really need to go out of the way to get such attention.
[X] Plan: Dream Again - [X] When Amu thinks Saaya will be able to actually hear her: "Saaya, I know you don't want to hear from me right now, or probably ever, but we don't have time. I've given you what I got, back when I was first learning about all this. The day we met, actually. The Lock is going to give you control, help you, and I'm going to try and lend you my power as well. I don't want you to die Saaya. I'm sorry for what's happened, but we are in this together now. If you can, remember that I was trying to help, when you Dreamt last."
-- [X] This isn't the best speech, and that should work in our favour. Saaya will hopefully be able to tell that we aren't using UMI or reading her mind, that this is just plain old human speech.
- [X] If it can be done and still remove the Lock after, transform before the next action.
- [X] Remove the Humpty Lock, and loop it around the unresponsive Saaya's neck. It will boost her resistance further, yes, but that's what we want. Push her hazy partial immunity into the full bloom of Psionics, to bring clarity to the confusion, while giving her back the skills she is so scared of someone else using on her.
-- [X] If she isn't moving even after that, then we will have to take a wider view. Attack her one last time, mentally, to force her to defend herself. Not with full power, but enough to force her to react and wake up.
-- [X] If she is the cause of the rift, then her control should be improved enough to fix it.
--- [X] The Lock took the brunt of this rifts rebound earlier when we looked at it, so we are going to need to lend our power to Saaya.
The rift was growing at an alarming rate, the wind escalating from a mere storm to a deafening gale. Air was finding its way from everywhere around her—the cracked walls, the open classroom door—to hurl itself into oblivion. Amu felt it tugging at her, an almost magnetic force pulling her towards the blinding light of the rift. She shielded her eyes with her arm, but it was barely enough; the light pierced through, revealing the fracturing reality around her—the classroom, a thumping wound in the mental space surrounding her, and an indescribable elsewhere that seemed to stretch the very fabric of her understanding.
Somewhere that she couldn't see. Somewhere she could barely sense at all, except that the mental space was getting bigger, in a way she found impossible to describe. The tinkling laughter was getting louder, crueller, and had somehow gained an undertone of irony.
She glanced down at Saaya, sprawled on the floor, and felt a knot of fear tighten in her stomach. It wasn't fair. Saaya might have been mean, but this... this was a nightmare. Amu's heart pounded against her ribcage, each beat screaming that she was just a kid, too young for this horror.
But then, so was Saaya.
And she'd done this before.
Lulu's words echoed in her mind—get out, leave—but Amu's gaze was fixed on the other girl. "Saaya!" she yelled, her voice almost swallowed by the gale. No response, only the eerie laughter from the rift and Saaya's faint whimper, as well as the rumble of debris rolling, sometimes flying from all around the classroom, tumbling towards the rift. A desk tumbled by, crumpling as it went until a small sphere of rubble vanished into the rift.
Amu's breath hitched. She couldn't, shouldn't, go any closer. Panic clawed at her throat, her mind racing. She should grab Saaya and run, but where? What if the portal kept growing? What would happen to everyone else?
The rift's expansion seemed to be avoiding Saaya.
A horrifying thought struck Amu—was Saaya somehow restraining it? The realisation made her skin crawl. For a fleeting, shameful moment, she considered leaving Saaya behind. But that thought alone sent a wave of guilt washing over her. She couldn't abandon someone, no matter what. It wasn't who she was, or who she wanted to be, despite the terror that threatened to overwhelm her every thought. And Saaya?
She wasn't pleasant company, but Saaya was still human, still someone she knew, and it wasn't as though every single memory was bad. A memory flashed in Amu's mind: Saaya, carefree and laughing, suspended in mid-air as Lulu's gem gave her what she'd apparently wanted.
She reached for Saaya's hand, and recoiled as a bolt of electricity lanced up her arm. It felt like static shock, but a thousand times worse. The Humpty Lock, still looped around her neck, turned ice cold.
Gritting her teeth, Amu reached for Saaya's hand again, only to be jolted by another surge of pain. It was like a thousand static shocks fused into one, sending her nerves into a frenzy. Despite the pain and her instinct to withdraw, Amu held on. Saaya's skin was scorching to the touch, yet underneath the heat she was sweating, her entire body shaking. Her lips moved, her teeth clenching and unclenching as she mumbled under her breath, a string of syllables and gibberish.
"Saaya!" Amu shouted, her voice barely audible over the howling chaos. Saaya seemed lost in her own world, unresponsive to Amu's call.
That was it, then. She had to reach her telepathically; it was the only choice. Or simply carry her out, but breaking a hole would take time and-
She sat down, to hold Saaya down against the pull of the wind. Closed her eyes. And dropped out of reality.
⁂
She didn't often do this, and never before while she was in danger. Amu felt a little frantic, and more than a little lost. She was standing—or not really, since there was no ground—in a field of swirling lights and vague impressions. They weren't thoughts, not quite, but they weren't just energy, either.
She was dragging Dia up out of her semi-comatose slumber as quickly as she could, but that wasn't fast, precisely. In the real world, her eyes dimmed. Had anyone been there to see them through her closed eyelids, they would have seen them lose their faintly luminescent glow, regaining the same pure brown colour that they'd had when she was younger. But no-one was, and no-one did, and even Amu had never experimented with Dia in front of a mirror.
The rift was still present in this world. Amu could sense it, a gaping wound in the space around her, and a distant part of her was aware that it was continuing to grow. But there was no wind here, only a distant awareness.
Instead, she focused her attention on Saaya.
And Saaya's mind was a mess. Amu couldn't tell where the world around her began, and where her mind ended. They were fused together, fragmented shards of Saaya spraying sparks and arcs of energy, her consciousness splintering. Amu reached out, and-
She was drowning. She was-
She was Saaya.
Saaya, whose parents were ignoring each other again. Whose father had just come home late, and was arguing with her mother about how he was late, and he hadn't meant to be, and he'd been with a girl, and that was-
Her parents, giving her a brand new macintosh for her birthday, when she'd asked for a gaming console. Not paying enough attention even to realise they were different, just picking out the most expensive option.
Saaya, sitting on the couch, a glass of apple juice in her hands, listening. She'd never realised how much her parents argued before. She'd never listened before, hadn't known to, but then Amu had told her classmates about her summer vacation and how much fun it had been. How her cousin had gotten married, and how much her dad and mum loved each other, and Saaya had-
Saaya, watching Amu. She was always so confident, always seemed to have everything in control, and it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!
She wanted what Amu had.
Saaya, cutting her hair short on one side of her head, and being told off for it. She'd thought it looked cool, but it turned out she'd gotten a bad haircut.
Saaya, staring at Ami, her heart in her throat. Amu's sister was adorable, and sweet, and perfect, and Amu didn't even appreciate-
That night, with a burning heat pounding inside her, she'd realised how weird that thought had been.
She'd gone home, and-
That dream. That stupid, impossible, stupid, wonderful dream.
And the next day, she'd woken up, and it was just her, in her room. Just Saaya.
And she'd punched a hole in her door. Ripped it to pieces. She hadn't meant to.
She'd been told off for that, too.
And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and-
She had punched out against Amu, wanting nothing more than to turn her smirk into a hole, and had realised only a second after she'd done it what that would do to Amu, that she'd just tried to kill her classmate, and Amu hadn't even seemed to notice, and then-
Reality had come apart, a yawning feeling just like her door-
And then-
She was-
'Dying,' Amu realised. Sayaa's mind had been splintering for months, and now it was coming apart. Her last conscious thought, the one reverberating between all her shards, was that she had to fix this. That she'd broken the world, so she had to be the one to fix it, but she was going to die before she could.
And on some horrifying level that Amu was firmly not going to deal with right now? Saaya was okay with that. Her classmate was almost seeing it as a relief, to exit the stage early, to escape without it being her fault.
But.
'I don't want to die,' Saaya's thoughts whispered, a million times over. 'I don't want to live,' said some, and 'I wish I'd never met her,' and 'I hate her, I hate her, I hate her.'
But most of all, she just didn't want to die.
And she was still there, her consciousness a muddled jumble. A million versions of Saaya, none of them able to agree on anything. But they all had a core, and they all agreed on a single fact. They were scared of everything, including themselves. They were attacking everything, including each other. They couldn't fit the pieces back together, couldn't remember what not being broken felt like.
She was already gone. If Amu moved her right now, the rift would tear her apart. And some of her was being drawn in already—was already there, dragged away from Saaya and torn into a rain of diamond dust that was still, somehow, lashing out. That's what was holding it back.
'How do I-'
There was no time. The rift was still growing. Saaya had been holding it back, but doing so was tearing her apart. She was-
'Saaya!'
A thousand fragments turned her way, some greeting her with mocking laughter, others with rage, or confusion, or hope, or-
'Saaya, you have to stop!
'Why should I?' the fragments replied.
'It's not Amu's fault,' said a thousand fragments, and 'I want her to suffer,' and 'You have to run away!'
Some threw themselves willingly at the rift, any end a relief. Others were dragged, pulled apart. A handful fought, stubbornly, and one by one they were torn to pieces, their last thoughts a desperate desire for help.
⁂
Amu tore her way back to reality, gasping for breath. Her face was wet, her cheeks stained with tears, and she wasn't sure when she'd started crying. Her eyes were sore. Saaya's hand was still in hers, and Saaya was-
Amu reached out, and Saaya was-
Still there, her mind a shattered ruin, a storm of emotions and fear and rage and-
Amu took a deep breath. She couldn't stay too close, and not just because Saaya had asked her not to. She glanced back at the rift, which had barely changed. How long had it been—seconds? It must have been seconds, but it had felt like an eternity. Running away with Saaya was, apparently, out. Her hands burned, a thousand mental cuts where she was touching her, and the air was starting to smell of ozone. She had to check to make sure her hands weren't being shredded, but there was no blood; only the feeling of papercuts.
But Saaya's mind, the fragments that remained, was still there.
'Su?' she thought, then discarded the idea. Su was the part of her that knew how to fix things—yes, but that was messes on the floor, or a broken toy, or a mistake, not- not a literally shattered soul.
She looked down at Saaya, whose mind was in pieces, and realised she didn't know what to do.
She didn't know how to put a mind back together, or even how to start. She wasn't like Dia.
Dia-
Her hands moved, nearly on automatic. She reached up to the locket hanging around her neck, and undid the chain. She held it up, the Humpty Lock glowing in the light of the rift, her hands shaking a little. She'd held onto the amulet for nearly four years. What it did was a mystery even to her. Support her transformations? Let her fly? Yes, but she could do those even without it, most of the time. What it did do—what she was sure that it did, with a certainty coming from nowhere at all—was act as a shield, a focus. A scaffolding.
There was a single future in which Saaya lived, and was able to shout at her again, and it was the one in which she did this. She could see that future clearly now. Saaya walking next to her, snarking about her choice of clothes while they searched for a cafe to eat lunch in.
She could do the things that led to that future.
Amu took a deep breath, then slipped the locket around Saaya's neck. It was an awkward fit, given the girl was lying down, but the lock clicked shut. Her hands were shaking as she gently brushed a strand of hair from Saaya's face.
She knew the Humpty Lock didn't act on its own, and Saaya was in no state to control it. With a deep breath, Amu reached towards the locket nestled against Saaya's chest. She didn't touch it physically; instead, she focused her intent on it. The locket responded, glowing a vivid pink that swiftly morphed into a dazzling, almost blinding, shade of deep-sea green.
Saaya's reaction was immediate and terrifying. She began to scream, a sound filled with agony and fear. A shockwave ripped through the room, hurling debris in all directions. Saaya convulsed, her back arching off the floor as a torrent of green light burst from her, forming emerald ribbons of energy that writhed and then retracted back into her.
The screaming abruptly ceased. Amu sensed something like ethereal bars of light pressing into Saaya, knitting the scattered pieces of her mind back together. The process was far from perfect; she was riddled with enough scars and missing pieces that Amu wasn't sure how she would ever recover. But she wasn't dying anymore.
Meanwhile, the rift was in turmoil. The odd cracks in reality widened, the light pulsing erratically but intensifying. A sound akin to a wooden house collapsing filled the air. The gale-force wind was still there, stronger than before, pulling towards the rift. The fissures were reaching towards Amu now, the divot left by Saaya's self-destruction hungrily filling in now that she was no longer holding back the tide.
The Humpty Lock was still, softly, glowing. Amu stared at it, then tucked it away inside Saaya's blouse. The other girl's eyes were still closed, but her lips were moving, tears streaming from her eyes. Amu pulled her into an embrace, then pushed herself to her feet, lifting Saaya with her.
They were going to get out. They would.
She just had to figure out how.
She'd barely gotten started on that, hesitating between punching a hole in the wall behind them or a floor, when Saaya stirred.
"No," she whispered.
"What?" Amu said.
"Stop," said Saaya.
"We can't, not now, we have to-"
"Just..." Saaya opened her eyes, the pupils dilated and unfocused. She sluggishly looked around, her gaze sweeping across the walls, the ceiling, the rift. "Wait," she repeated.
Amu sighed, frustration building like a knot in her throat.
"Saaya, no. We have to go, now."
"No, no, no," Saaya said, her words barely audible over the cacophony of noise and the roar of the wind. She stared at the rift, and slowly, ever so slowly, her face relaxed. The rift, still expanding, was now almost three-quarters of the width of the classroom, and the air was filled with a sharp tang, like the scent of lightning.
"Saaya..."
"I did this," she mumbled. "This is... me."
"You. Did not," Amu said, her voice suddenly fierce. "Saaya, I know you don't want to hear this from me now. Or probably ever. But this isn't your fault, and it isn't mine either."
Saaya sluggishly shook her head.
"I can fix it."
Amu stared at her. She could feel the sincerity in her thoughts. She could tell that Saaya thought, in some corner of her mind, that she really could fix it. She couldn't, though. Definitely not.
"Well, I won't let you." Amu's arms tightened, and she started to rise.
"What," Saaya whispered, a faint tinge of anger creeping into her voice.
"I'm taking you somewhere safe."
"You can't. You can't make me."
"Actually, I can." Amu said, a touch of desperation entering her voice. "I can pick you up, and throw you through a window, and fly us out of here. Do you think you can stop me?"
"I," Saaya said, her eyes widening.
"Look at the locket you're wearing," Amu continued, her voice growing sharper. Saaya's eyes dropped, staring down at her own chest.
"You... you gave me your locket," she whispered.
"I did."
"I didn't want-"
"Do you really think I care?" Amu snapped.
"Why would you?" Saaya muttered.
"Because you're not a bad person, and you deserve better."
Saaya went quiet, her gaze fixed on the Humpty Lock, its emerald glow barely visible through the fabric of her shirt.
"That's the locket I got , back when I was first learning about all this. The day we met, actually. The Lock is going to give you control, help you, and right now it's all that's keeping you alive actually." Amu took a deep breath, her arms tightening around Saaya. "I don't want you to die, Saaya. I'm sorry for what's happened, and I'll listen if you want to shout at me, but I'm not leaving you here. If you can, remember that I was trying to help, last time we fought."
Saaya was silent, and the seconds ticked past, the rift still slowly expanding, the walls buckling under the strain. Then, slowly, she raised her arms, resting them lightly on Amu's shoulders.
"I'm scared," she murmured. "I don't- I don't want to hurt anyone."
"I won't let you."
"You don't know-"
"You're not going to, because you're not alone. I'll help."
"I hate you," Saaya mumbled, her hands tightening. For once, Amu didn't need to be psionic to hear the undertone. 'I hate myself'.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"I hate that too."
Amu nodded, then stood up, her hands moving to Saaya's sides. "Let's get you out of here. I have no idea how to close the rift, but I'm not risking you, not anymore. Okay?"
Saaya nodded, her face pale. "Okay."
Amu stepped back, then stopped, her gaze drifting to the side. She could feel Tadase in the corridor, his mind the same blazing inferno of self-righteousness it always became when he used his transformation mode. He'd gotten better about hiding it, but not enough to hide from Amu.
She suppressed a smirk, then looked towards the rift, which was emitting a low-pitched groan. The expansion had slowed.
"What," Saaya whispered.
"Tadase's outside," Amu explained. "He's holding it back. Now will you leave? Please?"
Saay looked back at the rift, her eyes wide, her hands trembling. "Okay," she said, then turned to look at the outside wall.
The emerald glow from the humpty lock intensified slightly. Then the wall, already weakened, and entirely without Amu's say-so, exploded.
= = =
This was supposed to be a no-win scenario. The rest of you didn't make any mistakes. Anyway, I guess… this is where we're at now. Saaya will be keeping the Locket for the foreseeable future, but Amu doesn't need it that much anymore.
The overall situation is:
- Saaya needs to get to sleep, right now. She could use a few weeks' rest. Give her at least a day or three… is what I'd like to hope. Never mind. She isn't an asset at present, and Amu knows that, but she is a concern for later and shouldn't be in this fight.
- Tadase is currently resisting an irresistible force by using an immovable object (himself), and slowly being pushed backwards. Amu doesn't expect him to get tired, but that might not matter.
- Amu didn't notice Nagihiko doing anything blatant, but you can probably assume he's there as well.
- Kukai is likely helping with the evacuation of the second floor, which undoubtedly has taken damage as well.
- Amu needs to evacuate her classroom right now, because the location she's in will have a rift there in another few seconds.
- Amu is at 5/6 WP.
You can expect a difficulty 2 fight.
It's been about two and a half minutes since this course of events started.
Choices, choices…
[ ] Evacuate the vicinity
- You're down a lot of energy, missing your locket, and your head aches. You're not in good shape for a fight. If anything appears, hopefully the other former Guardians can handle it.
[ ] Evacuate Saaya, then come back
- You can't leave Tadase and Nagihiko on their own.
[ ] Evaluate the situation before doing anything
- While that might sound obvious, you are in a situation where seconds count. It might or might not be a good idea.
[ ] Call Lulu and update her on the developments. Yes she's going to yell at you, but if she's calling people in to help, they need to know what they are rushing into.
[ ] Look for Miki. Chances are she's in the grade-school section with Ami, and you know the area well.
- [ ] If she is in the grade-school section, she's near Yuu. Maybe he knows something about this from Easter's research?
- [ ] Or Hikaru might.
- It will take valuable time for them to answer either way, and every second counts.
You will note there were no dice rolls in this one. The plan, under the circumstances, didn't need them; but I doubt very much that you'll pull that off twice.
