If you have control over a project, aren't you by definition in a non-symbolic leadership position?
Shards of a Broken Sun [Deprecated; see link in final post for remake]
- Thread starter Baughn
- Start date
- Crossover Sci-Fi
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
It doesn't matter if your official position gives you the leadership, it only matters that you are leading it. An intern who just takes charge of a project can use it just fine, but the owner of a company who isn't really involved in a project can't.
It doesn't sound like you disagree with anything I've said.
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
I am saying that leading an effort does not require people seeing you as being in a leadership position.
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Hyacinthium
Writing about sad cannibals as we speak.
- Location
- Bedroom
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The white haired man is not bad he is can be friend
Do not enemy meritocracy man =(
Do not enemy meritocracy man =(
He's a potential enemy though. Right now he's more an... ally and rival.
Highwind
To Rise From The Ashes
- Location
- Brazil
We haven't done anything to earn his ire, and plan on doing exactly the opposite of making him angry. Not to mention we aren't in a position to really hurt him without consequences to other people we care about.
Like Lilithium said, Do Not Enemy Meritocracy Man.
Except he regards us as a potential threat, just easily controllable right now, so we must do the same with him lest it bite us in the ass.
Highwind
To Rise From The Ashes
- Location
- Brazil
When SV and SB regard someone as a potential threat they start planning for everything, including and especially how to kill them, when in this case the best thing to do is just never give Hotsuin a reason to move us from "Potential Threat" to "Actual Threat".
We can keep the plans in Exa's storage. If we don't need them, great, if we do though, I am not getting caught without at least a semblance of a plan.
If you want to walk into that potential minefield without a map, go ahead. Don't expect the rest of us to follow.
Really, the only way we'd actually get Yamato going after us is if we insist on either A) going along with Polaris (or possibly Hikawa, though that's not as certain) or B) putting the least competent people we can find in charge of stuff just because we know them, neither of which we seem inclined to do. As it is, at worst he'd just not trust us with more information than he thinks we need to know to do what we're trying to do. We definitely could end up having him consider us an enemy, it would just require concentrated effort on our part to antagonize him to that point.
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Okay.
Finished my re-read and note writing. That took me... three weeks? Thereabouts, and I now have eight pages of notes. They should come quite in handy, but in other words, this is when I start writing -- once I've had a good night's sleep. Wish me luck.
The first chapter will be Mato's side, as promised, but after that there's the slightly-out-of-order recap. I've also gone through and added a lot of informational thread-marks, anywhere I spotted a particularly useful infodump.
Until such a time as that update is posted... have an Utau instead!
Finished my re-read and note writing. That took me... three weeks? Thereabouts, and I now have eight pages of notes. They should come quite in handy, but in other words, this is when I start writing -- once I've had a good night's sleep. Wish me luck.
The first chapter will be Mato's side, as promised, but after that there's the slightly-out-of-order recap. I've also gone through and added a lot of informational thread-marks, anywhere I spotted a particularly useful infodump.
Until such a time as that update is posted... have an Utau instead!
Hyacinthium
Writing about sad cannibals as we speak.
- Location
- Bedroom
- Pronouns
- He/Him
ITS TIME FOR
Child friendly card games and hugs!
Child friendly card games and hugs!
Highwind
To Rise From The Ashes
- Location
- Brazil
Is it wrong that I want to see a Yu-Gi-Oh/SMT crossover now?
Hyacinthium
Writing about sad cannibals as we speak.
- Location
- Bedroom
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fuck I want it too.
That sounds like it would be amazing and surprisingly not too hard to fuse together either. But the likelihood of such a thing ever coming to pass is so low Q-Q.
Highwind
To Rise From The Ashes
- Location
- Brazil
Well, Yu-Gi-Oh has demons, gods and entities of unfathomable power being summoned and controlled through cards. SMT has demons, gods and beings of unfathomable power being summomed and controlled through computer programs. They're made for one another.
But yeah, the chances of such a crossover being written, let alone written well, are near non-existant.
Then again I'd have said the same thing about a Chugo Chara/Exalted/SMT crossover, so I guess there's hope.
Shugo Chara. Get the name of Best Girl's show right you heathen.Then again I'd have said the same thing about a Chugo Chara/Exalted/SMT crossover, so I guess there's hope.
Highwind
To Rise From The Ashes
- Location
- Brazil
Gimme a break, man. It's three in the morning where I live. I'm surprised I'm still coherent enough to type.Shugo Chara. Get the name of Best Girl's show right you heathen.
Quantumboost
Now with 50% more dots in Dimensional Science
- Location
- Ensemble Space
...Can I trade the card games in for more hugs?
Am I right in thinking that skill cracking is basically ripping out the metaphysical organs demons use to cast spells at fusing them to you?
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Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Yeeeeep.
Now consider that there's no strict distinction between those, and their mind. Then take another look at Io. Alcor's program does a very good job so long as you don't consistently exceed your limits, but...
----
On a different note, where does chat happen these days? The IRC channel is nearly abandoned... Discord?
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From what little I've seen, people seem to like Discord these days, yes.
Hyacinthium
Writing about sad cannibals as we speak.
- Location
- Bedroom
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Long live discord, yeah.
Black Impulse: Tuesday's Disquiet: 3
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
[X] "Yui-chan... it's okay, no one is going to get hurt and you won't hurt anyone. What happened there wasn't your fault, the Demon was the one who hurt them, not you. And... if anything you saved me and my brother, Yui-chan. If it weren't for you beating that Bull Demon up I wouldn't be here. So please, come out from under that blanket and talk to us."
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that, being a child, you don't know what is or isn't normal and the way of the world.
Here's an example.
This happened two, maybe three years ago. Mato had been a grade-schooler at the time, a ten year old girl who loved running—with Yuu—loved playing with friends—mostly Yuu—and came home covered in dirt every day. So far, so normal, and she'd never been told otherwise. Her parents would shout at her when she got home, then at each other, and she'd wait for Hiro then retreat to her room. Most of the time he'd be there already.
At ten, she didn't know this was wrong. She knew she didn't like it, but still assumed it was normal. Furthermore, Mato felt ashamed. The smallest flaws loom large to a child; so what, then, of genuine discord? She loved both of her parents, yet it was always once they saw her that they started shouting.
It wasn't her fault.
Yuu's line, the one person Mato implicitly trusted. She'd known her since kindergarten, they'd grown up together, she could tell her anything.
(She hadn't. Yuu was Strength, and Strength was never much younger than then. They'd grown up together, they'd shared everything, and they could never have met before she was ten.)
Yuu was supportive, but not truly helpful. She let Mato look away from the problem, taught her to find joy in the other parts of her life, but never thought it was odd. Yuu didn't know what was normal.
It wasn't her fault.
Not even when Dad… left, leaving everything he owned behind. Yuu had sprinted to her house, somehow knowing she was needed, and Yuu had held her while she cried. She'd tried so very hard.
(Strength had failed, and Mato had lost something of herself. That was her first memory as Rock. You can try your hardest, but your hardest might not be enough.)
This explains the background. Now on to the present.
——————
Mato didn't know what was normal, looking down at the shivering bundle of blankets and misery that was Yui, but she knew what she recognized and hated. Mom wasn't saying much, Yagami-detective-san was being completely unhelpful, and this was just like back then.
The girl was a little older than Hiro. Ten, maybe; too young to be anything but a child, too old not to understand. She shouldn't have to deal with this.
"Yui-chan…"
She wondered at the wistfulness in her voice. Then she knelt, embracing Yui through the blanket. The shivers redoubled, the smaller and much weaker girl ineffectively trying to push her away.
"It's okay," she murmured, feeling close to tears herself. "No-one is going to get hurt, and you won't hurt anyone. What happened there wasn't your fault, the demon was the one who hurt them. Not you."
She only had one real plan, emulating Yuu. Mato hugged the girl tight, continuing her talk before Yui could do more than shake her head. "And… if anything, you saved me and my brother, Yui-chan. If it weren't for you beating that bull demon up, I wouldn't be here. So, please…"
There was a part of her that thought the girl tasted like eggshell and ashes, as unappetizing as a lump of charcoal. Rock's body held more senses than the normal five, and emotions were newly tasty to her, but not these. At least she felt no hint of an Other.
"Please, don't do this to yourself. Come out from that blanket and talk to us. Let me help."
That rotting, sour smell of old apples. Was that what fear was like?
It didn't quite work. Yui wouldn't come out of her blanket, and didn't quickly respond at all. When she did, Mato was faced with a teary-eyed girl, one who brokenly explained about her cellphone and Nicaea. Mato felt a pit grow in her stomach. She'd known, but hadn't realized that Yui did.
She shot a betrayed look at Yagami-san, who gave her a what-ya-wanna-do sort of shrug.
"It's okay, Kuroi-san." Yui stuck her head out of the blanket, giving her a tremulous smile, one that made Mato feel awful. The tear trails had barely dried. "I know. I killed someone, so I have to go to prison. I don't want to hurt you."
It was a bitter sight. Yui looked younger than her age, with a soft face and reddish pink, green and blue stripes in her hair, but she had a blue eye, bruises and a stuffy nose to go with the tears, making her far too woebegone overall to be called anything like 'cute'. She… Mato clenched her fists.
"It's not okay!"
Her nostrils flared. Then she deflated. She had the right to feel angry, she just… there didn't seem to be anyone good to be angry at.
"It's not," she mumbled, instead enfolding Yui in a hug. A proper one this time, now that she'd been shorn of her camouflage, chin to chin and arms around her back. Mato was far beyond caring about propriety. The action gained her a squeak, and an abortive half-step from mom, but it was the only way to go. If she'd been Yui, this was what she'd want, and—Mato was about to start crying herself.
She wasn't the one who should be here. It should be Yui's friends… which meant Sakura, who had died. Or her parents, who'd scare her away. She knew how it felt, she'd cried for days once she realised that Strength was gone; she'd been inconsolable, even with Yomi to help. Yomi hadn't known what to say, and Mato didn't know how to help Yui.
The way the girl trembled in her arms reminded her far, far too much of herself.
"It's not," she repeated. "You weren't trying to hurt anyone. You shouldn't have to pay for anything. No-one should have had to die, not when no-one wanted them to, but it's not your fault." She felt like she was trying to convince herself. "You didn't know. And… I'm hard to hurt, so you don't have to be afraid."
She just wished she had a better argument than denial.
"It's really not," she sniffled, holding on until, with a convulsive shudder, Yui brought her hands up and returned the hug. Returned it with a death-grip, renewed tears, and a whispered, 'But she's still dead.'
Mato started crying in earnest.
————
Schools, as a rule, discourage friendships in-between their grades. Even if they hadn't, as a first-grader in middle school, it would have been beneath Mato to spend time with a fourth-grader in grade school. She hadn't cared much for that logic to begin with, and given that the world had ended, she felt no reason at all to care today.
Yui was ten, that was the point. Mato was twelve—almost thirteen—which made them close enough to the same age, and Yui a valid target for comfort.
She hadn't really thought about it, but this made three times in two days she'd nearly died. First, twice against Dubhe—once leaving a corpse behind, one that she'd need to say something about. Someone would notice. Then she'd barely stopped herself from killing Hiro. Then, the day after, the bull.
She had a lot to cry about, and Mato didn't think it was wrong of her to do so. She would have liked to find someone to shout at, or—to shoot, Rock liked to shoot them—but failing that, she wasn't too proud to cry. Crying always made her feel better.
Yui was warm, and alive, and not mom.
Which was to say, she didn't mind crying on Yui. She'd had a stressful two days, and Mato no longer had an Otherself who'd take the stress for her. Nor did she mind crying in front of mom, not anymore. She wasn't even a teenager yet—what use was that status, if not at times like this?
Mato would have minded, but Rock didn't care, and she found she was okay with that.
They clung to each other for she didn't know how long, only that Yui gradually stopped crying, calming down before even Mato did, and slowly her death grip on Mato transformed into a softer sort of hug. Before too long it turned out that she was the one comforting Mato, which was all sorts of wrong… and that's what made her pull back and try to compose herself.
"Feel better?"
"...that's my line," Mato said, smiling lightly. Yui really looked worse than before, but her eyes were clear.
"Mm." Yui looked down. "But I still have to go to prison. I killed Sakura-chan. I hurt Izayoi-kun, really badly. And I'm dangerous, I—"
"Without your cellphone?" Mato groaned, rubbing her head. "Yui-chan, you're nice, but think about this for a second. You can't summon any demons without it—that's how it works, right?" She looked up at Yagami-san, who looked uncomfortable, but who nodded. "—Right. You're safe, there's no way you'll hurt someone by accident. Yagami-san here doesn't even want to arrest you. Right?"
"I have a son your age," Yagami grumbled. He didn't sound at all happy to be part of this conversation.
"See?"
Yui shuddered, her hands digging into the blanket. Then she looked up, expression as lost as Mato had ever seen her. Her voice was thin.
"I don't have to go to jail?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Yagami grumped. Mato ignored him.
"Of course not. You're safe, I said. Not like me—" She pushed a gun into existence, catching Yui's attention before letting it disappear again. "I can do that anywhere. I don't have a safe mode, but they're letting me go free so—"
"Aaaaand stop. I really wish you hadn't done that, Kuroi-san."
The cell door clanged against the wall, Yagami having used it for emphasis. Mato twitched, then looked up.
"You can walk through walls, you can make weapons from nothing, and—I don't know if you knew this—you don't show up on camera." He sounded tireder than usual. "You're the ideal assassin, not to mention a walking affront to the gun control laws. If you hadn't agreed to my proposal…" He shook his head. "It's a good thing you did. Fujioka-kun, please tell me there's a solution to at least some of that."
"I got out because I didn't want K syndrome—"
"Please."
"Maybe some kind of ward?" The other policeman looked unsure, to Mato's eyes. Which made two of them. "I'll have to make some calls."
"Do that." Yagami looked back to them. "Now, as for you two. I'd certainly like to keep you out of jail, but as for how…" He sighed. "Politics is getting in the way, as it does. I'd like to help you, but you'll have to help me as well, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it: It's going to suck. You'll be the first two employees of—Fujioka-kun, what did you call it?"
"The department of transhuman affairs," Fujioka said. He sounded mildly amused.
"I barely got the chief to sign off on it," Yagami grumped. Mato was starting to think that was his default state of being. "So, you'll be the first two—and your boss, no clue who that'll be—but I doubt you'll be the last. Hopefully, if things settle down, we'll get you out of there and back to school in a couple of months. Realistically, I doubt it. If you're feeling dubious, think about it as another form of reparations; stopping this from happening to other people."
"Yagami… san." Yui spoke up, uncertainly. "Sorry, but— doing what?"
"Well…"
Making her accept the concept of fighting people took another round of hugs. This time less desperate, but Yui was not happy with the notion of using demons for that. Or at all, it was more about the demons than the fighting.
Yui's parents showed up an hour later, though by then it was all effectively decided. They were not happy either, which they showed mainly by threatening to sue. Mato wished them luck with that—they seemed nice, and Yui looked far, far happier with her parents there, even if she didn't get to go home yet
That came later, after a great deal of shouting, a visit to the police chief, and with Yui's cellphone being ceremoniously locked up in an evidence container. Mato thought it all seemed rather irregular, but who was she to know?
By the time Yui went home she had officially changed from "Prisoner" to "External Asset," and she was going there mostly to get cleaned up—though Yagami-san had mentioned no-one would look for her the rest of the day. Which left Mato rather at a loose end. She'd never been arrested, she'd signed some papers but nothing could happen that quickly, and Yagami had said she'd be fine so long as she kept a cellphone about, so…
She had a chance to do something she wanted.
Tuesday afternoon, and Mato is wondering where to go. Pick a maximum of two choices. No more bull interrupts for you.
[ ] Experiment with her powers. Find somewhere quiet and play around.
[ ] Visit Saya and Yuu . (But not Strength, because…)
[ ] Visit Yomi.
[ ] Spend time with Hiro.
[ ] Follow Yui home.
[ ] Write-in
A/N: This has been a long time coming. I hope it's to your taste, and not too confusing; at least in this case there isn't too much of a story to re-read. I'm already working on Amu's recap, that girl really needs one.
Sadly, even if you were to have Amu meet Yui, I think the former has quite outgrown the latter already.
Also. Which Discord?
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that, being a child, you don't know what is or isn't normal and the way of the world.
Here's an example.
This happened two, maybe three years ago. Mato had been a grade-schooler at the time, a ten year old girl who loved running—with Yuu—loved playing with friends—mostly Yuu—and came home covered in dirt every day. So far, so normal, and she'd never been told otherwise. Her parents would shout at her when she got home, then at each other, and she'd wait for Hiro then retreat to her room. Most of the time he'd be there already.
At ten, she didn't know this was wrong. She knew she didn't like it, but still assumed it was normal. Furthermore, Mato felt ashamed. The smallest flaws loom large to a child; so what, then, of genuine discord? She loved both of her parents, yet it was always once they saw her that they started shouting.
It wasn't her fault.
Yuu's line, the one person Mato implicitly trusted. She'd known her since kindergarten, they'd grown up together, she could tell her anything.
(She hadn't. Yuu was Strength, and Strength was never much younger than then. They'd grown up together, they'd shared everything, and they could never have met before she was ten.)
Yuu was supportive, but not truly helpful. She let Mato look away from the problem, taught her to find joy in the other parts of her life, but never thought it was odd. Yuu didn't know what was normal.
It wasn't her fault.
Not even when Dad… left, leaving everything he owned behind. Yuu had sprinted to her house, somehow knowing she was needed, and Yuu had held her while she cried. She'd tried so very hard.
(Strength had failed, and Mato had lost something of herself. That was her first memory as Rock. You can try your hardest, but your hardest might not be enough.)
This explains the background. Now on to the present.
——————
Mato didn't know what was normal, looking down at the shivering bundle of blankets and misery that was Yui, but she knew what she recognized and hated. Mom wasn't saying much, Yagami-detective-san was being completely unhelpful, and this was just like back then.
The girl was a little older than Hiro. Ten, maybe; too young to be anything but a child, too old not to understand. She shouldn't have to deal with this.
"Yui-chan…"
She wondered at the wistfulness in her voice. Then she knelt, embracing Yui through the blanket. The shivers redoubled, the smaller and much weaker girl ineffectively trying to push her away.
"It's okay," she murmured, feeling close to tears herself. "No-one is going to get hurt, and you won't hurt anyone. What happened there wasn't your fault, the demon was the one who hurt them. Not you."
She only had one real plan, emulating Yuu. Mato hugged the girl tight, continuing her talk before Yui could do more than shake her head. "And… if anything, you saved me and my brother, Yui-chan. If it weren't for you beating that bull demon up, I wouldn't be here. So, please…"
There was a part of her that thought the girl tasted like eggshell and ashes, as unappetizing as a lump of charcoal. Rock's body held more senses than the normal five, and emotions were newly tasty to her, but not these. At least she felt no hint of an Other.
"Please, don't do this to yourself. Come out from that blanket and talk to us. Let me help."
That rotting, sour smell of old apples. Was that what fear was like?
It didn't quite work. Yui wouldn't come out of her blanket, and didn't quickly respond at all. When she did, Mato was faced with a teary-eyed girl, one who brokenly explained about her cellphone and Nicaea. Mato felt a pit grow in her stomach. She'd known, but hadn't realized that Yui did.
She shot a betrayed look at Yagami-san, who gave her a what-ya-wanna-do sort of shrug.
"It's okay, Kuroi-san." Yui stuck her head out of the blanket, giving her a tremulous smile, one that made Mato feel awful. The tear trails had barely dried. "I know. I killed someone, so I have to go to prison. I don't want to hurt you."
It was a bitter sight. Yui looked younger than her age, with a soft face and reddish pink, green and blue stripes in her hair, but she had a blue eye, bruises and a stuffy nose to go with the tears, making her far too woebegone overall to be called anything like 'cute'. She… Mato clenched her fists.
"It's not okay!"
Her nostrils flared. Then she deflated. She had the right to feel angry, she just… there didn't seem to be anyone good to be angry at.
"It's not," she mumbled, instead enfolding Yui in a hug. A proper one this time, now that she'd been shorn of her camouflage, chin to chin and arms around her back. Mato was far beyond caring about propriety. The action gained her a squeak, and an abortive half-step from mom, but it was the only way to go. If she'd been Yui, this was what she'd want, and—Mato was about to start crying herself.
She wasn't the one who should be here. It should be Yui's friends… which meant Sakura, who had died. Or her parents, who'd scare her away. She knew how it felt, she'd cried for days once she realised that Strength was gone; she'd been inconsolable, even with Yomi to help. Yomi hadn't known what to say, and Mato didn't know how to help Yui.
The way the girl trembled in her arms reminded her far, far too much of herself.
"It's not," she repeated. "You weren't trying to hurt anyone. You shouldn't have to pay for anything. No-one should have had to die, not when no-one wanted them to, but it's not your fault." She felt like she was trying to convince herself. "You didn't know. And… I'm hard to hurt, so you don't have to be afraid."
She just wished she had a better argument than denial.
"It's really not," she sniffled, holding on until, with a convulsive shudder, Yui brought her hands up and returned the hug. Returned it with a death-grip, renewed tears, and a whispered, 'But she's still dead.'
Mato started crying in earnest.
————
Schools, as a rule, discourage friendships in-between their grades. Even if they hadn't, as a first-grader in middle school, it would have been beneath Mato to spend time with a fourth-grader in grade school. She hadn't cared much for that logic to begin with, and given that the world had ended, she felt no reason at all to care today.
Yui was ten, that was the point. Mato was twelve—almost thirteen—which made them close enough to the same age, and Yui a valid target for comfort.
She hadn't really thought about it, but this made three times in two days she'd nearly died. First, twice against Dubhe—once leaving a corpse behind, one that she'd need to say something about. Someone would notice. Then she'd barely stopped herself from killing Hiro. Then, the day after, the bull.
She had a lot to cry about, and Mato didn't think it was wrong of her to do so. She would have liked to find someone to shout at, or—to shoot, Rock liked to shoot them—but failing that, she wasn't too proud to cry. Crying always made her feel better.
Yui was warm, and alive, and not mom.
Which was to say, she didn't mind crying on Yui. She'd had a stressful two days, and Mato no longer had an Otherself who'd take the stress for her. Nor did she mind crying in front of mom, not anymore. She wasn't even a teenager yet—what use was that status, if not at times like this?
Mato would have minded, but Rock didn't care, and she found she was okay with that.
They clung to each other for she didn't know how long, only that Yui gradually stopped crying, calming down before even Mato did, and slowly her death grip on Mato transformed into a softer sort of hug. Before too long it turned out that she was the one comforting Mato, which was all sorts of wrong… and that's what made her pull back and try to compose herself.
"Feel better?"
"...that's my line," Mato said, smiling lightly. Yui really looked worse than before, but her eyes were clear.
"Mm." Yui looked down. "But I still have to go to prison. I killed Sakura-chan. I hurt Izayoi-kun, really badly. And I'm dangerous, I—"
"Without your cellphone?" Mato groaned, rubbing her head. "Yui-chan, you're nice, but think about this for a second. You can't summon any demons without it—that's how it works, right?" She looked up at Yagami-san, who looked uncomfortable, but who nodded. "—Right. You're safe, there's no way you'll hurt someone by accident. Yagami-san here doesn't even want to arrest you. Right?"
"I have a son your age," Yagami grumbled. He didn't sound at all happy to be part of this conversation.
"See?"
Yui shuddered, her hands digging into the blanket. Then she looked up, expression as lost as Mato had ever seen her. Her voice was thin.
"I don't have to go to jail?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Yagami grumped. Mato ignored him.
"Of course not. You're safe, I said. Not like me—" She pushed a gun into existence, catching Yui's attention before letting it disappear again. "I can do that anywhere. I don't have a safe mode, but they're letting me go free so—"
"Aaaaand stop. I really wish you hadn't done that, Kuroi-san."
The cell door clanged against the wall, Yagami having used it for emphasis. Mato twitched, then looked up.
"You can walk through walls, you can make weapons from nothing, and—I don't know if you knew this—you don't show up on camera." He sounded tireder than usual. "You're the ideal assassin, not to mention a walking affront to the gun control laws. If you hadn't agreed to my proposal…" He shook his head. "It's a good thing you did. Fujioka-kun, please tell me there's a solution to at least some of that."
"I got out because I didn't want K syndrome—"
"Please."
"Maybe some kind of ward?" The other policeman looked unsure, to Mato's eyes. Which made two of them. "I'll have to make some calls."
"Do that." Yagami looked back to them. "Now, as for you two. I'd certainly like to keep you out of jail, but as for how…" He sighed. "Politics is getting in the way, as it does. I'd like to help you, but you'll have to help me as well, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it: It's going to suck. You'll be the first two employees of—Fujioka-kun, what did you call it?"
"The department of transhuman affairs," Fujioka said. He sounded mildly amused.
"I barely got the chief to sign off on it," Yagami grumped. Mato was starting to think that was his default state of being. "So, you'll be the first two—and your boss, no clue who that'll be—but I doubt you'll be the last. Hopefully, if things settle down, we'll get you out of there and back to school in a couple of months. Realistically, I doubt it. If you're feeling dubious, think about it as another form of reparations; stopping this from happening to other people."
"Yagami… san." Yui spoke up, uncertainly. "Sorry, but— doing what?"
"Well…"
Making her accept the concept of fighting people took another round of hugs. This time less desperate, but Yui was not happy with the notion of using demons for that. Or at all, it was more about the demons than the fighting.
Yui's parents showed up an hour later, though by then it was all effectively decided. They were not happy either, which they showed mainly by threatening to sue. Mato wished them luck with that—they seemed nice, and Yui looked far, far happier with her parents there, even if she didn't get to go home yet
That came later, after a great deal of shouting, a visit to the police chief, and with Yui's cellphone being ceremoniously locked up in an evidence container. Mato thought it all seemed rather irregular, but who was she to know?
By the time Yui went home she had officially changed from "Prisoner" to "External Asset," and she was going there mostly to get cleaned up—though Yagami-san had mentioned no-one would look for her the rest of the day. Which left Mato rather at a loose end. She'd never been arrested, she'd signed some papers but nothing could happen that quickly, and Yagami had said she'd be fine so long as she kept a cellphone about, so…
She had a chance to do something she wanted.
Tuesday afternoon, and Mato is wondering where to go. Pick a maximum of two choices. No more bull interrupts for you.
[ ] Experiment with her powers. Find somewhere quiet and play around.
[ ] Visit Saya and Yuu . (But not Strength, because…)
[ ] Visit Yomi.
[ ] Spend time with Hiro.
[ ] Follow Yui home.
[ ] Write-in
A/N: This has been a long time coming. I hope it's to your taste, and not too confusing; at least in this case there isn't too much of a story to re-read. I'm already working on Amu's recap, that girl really needs one.
Sadly, even if you were to have Amu meet Yui, I think the former has quite outgrown the latter already.
Also. Which Discord?
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