No, just no.
Grues always refer to the same thing.
And before this derails further, another snippet:
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Saturday's Eclipse, 15:28
[x] Introduce yourself to the leader and ask him if he'll still be there to talk in a few minutes. You need to check on your mom. You kind of ditched her.
Amu stared at Samael as he faded into nothingness and the soldiers ceased combat operations in exchange for mop-up procedures. At least, she was pretty sure they had to be soldiers, with the way they were acting, but she'd never seen any uniforms like that before. An errant thought whispered a question: How could tell what they were doing?
"Please tell me
someone saw Hikawa, that he didn't get away cleanly!"
Never mind, didn't matter. Truthfully, it probably mattered a lot, but she was far too tired to focus right now. Not while still paying attention to what they were doing, and that was definitely more important than introspection.
"Squads one through eight, search pattern two. Hurry!"
Probably this was when she should drop the character transformation, but she didn't feel safe yet; if her earlier experiment with Miki was any guide, she'd probably need to sit down for a good while afterwards. Transformations always made her feel better, so if she felt this bad despite the transformation…
"Squads nine and ten, search the casualties. Make sure he isn't playing possum. Eleven through fifteen, maintain the perimeter. Sixteen, put out the fires."
She slid her feet off the branch she was sitting on, hung on for a moment, then let herself fall the final three meters down to the ground. Her vision blurred again, the rapid shift in perspective giving her trouble until she managed to catch up, but physically it didn't feel like much of a leap. Physically, she felt fine; she was actually completely unhurt, though she'd had to dodge a burning bush when she hit the ground to keep it that way.
"Lieutenant Yamada, greet our guest. Be respectful! Lieutenant Ueno, take command while I contact Hotsuin. Get in touch with the JSDF and see about getting us a medical unit."
Most of the soldiers were leaving, leaving only twenty people (and demons) maintaining a circle around where the fight had happened, where the only civilians remaining were on the ground and unable to move. Eight more were searching the… bodies, though to her relief she could see a lot of them moving when prodded; they were, at least, still alive.
Four more people - one squad? - were busying themselves putting out the fires that Samael's rapid-fire lightning bolts had started, but at the same time were keeping a respectful distance from her own tree. When she turned to look at one, he flinched and hurried away, refusing to meet her eyes. She drew back, trying to hide against the tree.
Ah. I'm afraid that won't work, the flare of your anima banner is currently making stealth impossible."
"My
what?" She whispered.
Your anima banner. The light surrounding you, it's an unfortunate side-effect of using more essence than you can fully control. It does have some benefits, for instance making your enemies fear you.
For the first time in a while she really looked at herself, eyes widening when she realised the voice was right. There was a violet-tinged bonfire of golden light surrounding her, burning out the shadows and evenly illuminating everything around her. It had probably been there all along, but since she could easily see through it, she'd filtered it out until now. She was glowing, almost as brightly as the afternoon sun. More brightly, since she was below the tree canopy and it wasn't. She… had to calm down. What had it said?
"How do I
stop it from scaring people, then?" She hissed.
You just need to think of them as allies, or otherwise desire that it doesn't. However, I believe that is already the case. I've noticed no influence on anyone since you expelled that demon.
What… did that…
They were scared of
her. Not some strange banner, just her. Amu.
She didn't want to scare anyone. She wanted… She wasn't sure what she wanted, right now, only that this wasn't it. She wanted…
"Mom," she whispered. "Mom, please…" She repeated herself, her voice cracking.
She'd left her behind. She had to go find her.
Well. If that's what you desire… but I believe it would be for the best if you introduce yourself to this person first. It might cause a lot of trouble if you don't. That attack of yours is powerful against demons, but I do not believe it would have any significant effect on mortals, and you have yet to familiarise yourself with any alternate forms of combat.
What?
She looked up, finding that one of the soldiers was standing a few meters away, apparently waiting for her to notice him. Somehow a lot of time had passed since she'd hit the ground.
"Can I help you?" She reflexively asked, reverting to her usual manners.
To her bemusement, he bowed deeply before speaking in deeply archaic Japanese. "No, it is this unworthy one who must offer his thanks. I am called Lieutenant Yamada. May I have the honour of knowing your name?"
She scrambled to return the gesture, but she was off balance and didn't remember to correct that before bowing, so she didn't manage to bow as deeply in return. She blushed, hoping he wasn't the type to take offence. "I'm Hinamori Amu. It's nice to meet you." Hopefully this wouldn't take long.
He paused for a second, before switching to modern speech and continuing. "Then, Hinamori-sama. If you would like to come with me, there are many things we should discuss. There are others who wish to thank you, and although I do not know your reasons for interceding, we most likely have common cause against those who would ruin the world."
Amu shook her head in confusion, her mind too foggy to work her way through that speech. "That's… nice, but can I come back later? I need to go find Mom. I kind of left her behind…" She hoped she was still on that bench, but that seemed unlikely. She could vaguely remember her shouting for her when she'd run away. And now she felt guilty for doing that. Hopefully Miki and Su were keeping an eye on her… but what could they do, if they were?
Yamada frowned; she could almost see the gears turning in his head. "Your mother? Then… apologies if I misunderstand, but you are human?"
A fragment of her usual fire managed to come through. "Of course I am!"
"Well, humans don't usually…" His eyes widened. "Hold on. How old are you? And are you, perhaps, possessed?"
"I'm ten. Of course I'm not… actually, hang on." She'd heard plenty of ghost stories, and Ran definitely didn't count as possession, but…
While exaltation is technically similar to possession, there are enormous qualitative differences. For instance, you still have your own will. I am merely assisting and advising, not controlling. Possession generally involves beings with their own desires and motivations, and while I do have a motivation, it is entirely covered by being able to assist you.
She grimaced.
"…Apparently I'm technically possessed, but not really? It says it's not controlling me, just helping," she managed, feeling somewhat spooked. She could probably have seen this coming, if she'd had any time at all to think.
It also might have been good not to explain that. Never mind. I believe searching for your mother is a good plan, if for no other reason than to let you recover from exhaustion.
"All right." His voice remained calm, but his face told a different story; he was definitely uncomfortable with what she'd just said. "Stay here, then, and we'll see if we can help. I'll have to talk to the captain, but he's busy at the moment, so just…"
"No! …I mean." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Please, let me go find Mom. I promise I'll be back."
"Look, you. I can't let you -" He stopped, breathing deeply. "My apologies. I misspoke. Then, if you insist, may I provide an escort? The park is potentially dangerous today, and I'm sure you wouldn't want anything unfortunate to happen."
An escort? As in, a group of people following her around?
She wasn't sure. Her normal trust of authority warred with her memory of what she'd seen them do. They might be on her side, in some wider sense as part of Japan, but they didn't feel
safe.
———
Amu might not have realised, but you definitely noticed his mention of "Those who would ruin the world". That kind of line could mean a lot of things, but you'll definitely be mentioning it to her later.
[ ] Advise against it; run off on your own.
[ ] Try to convince him to let you go.
[ ] It's not a bad idea. There might be more demons around.
[ ] Actually, sticking around and hearing more wouldn't be a bad idea.
A/N: Voting stops at 10:00 UTC Sunday. 
