Commercial Break [Marina]

[Yumina Makino]

Remembering that this wasn't the worst injury she'd suffered kept Yumina from worrying about it too much. Although, back then she got healed, and didn't have to go home looking like this. It's a good thing her parents wouldn't be up at this hour. There would be time to bandage up before having to deal with them.

"You don't have to worry about me." She complained, but still accepted the help. The woman already had to kill the monster for her, so Yumina felt terrible. It's not like any other assistance could lower her mood even farther. Tonight's battle was a complete failure. One of these days she'd have to get good enough to not require everyone else's help.

Of course, that problem could be taken care of later. As for right now, there wasn't much of a reason to direct these negative feelings towards her savior. That girl didn't do anything wrong. All the depression and self-criticism could wait until Yumina got back home. Speaking of leaving. . .

"We could stick together, though. It's hard enough to avoid fighting when we're healthy." She began to rub the back of her neck, but quickly stopped after remembering that was the hand with blood on it. One more thing to wash before the crazy hour ended. Since the two of them were going to be near each other for longer than expected, it'd be rude to continue calling her 'that woman' all night. There had to be at least a casual introduction at some point, so why not now? "Anyway, I'm Yumina. Or Makino, but we can skip the surname for now."

---

SPOILER: Click to show

Social time with Marina Mikami has begun!

[Marina Mikami]

Marina gave the girl a soft smile. "I will anyway," she simply replied as she helped the girl to her feet. She couldn't help but wince as she did so. She had stupidly held out the hand that had gotten burned during the fight. Then again her other hand was holding on the parasol to help keep her steady, it wasn't like she had any other hands to use. Though the girl seemed okay with staying together for now. Marina gave her a small nod. They had a hard enough time dealing with that creature at full strength. Anything attacked them now if they were by themselves and they might be done for. Strength in numbers after all.

Marina dusted off her dress a bit with her free hand. She was very glad she had worn older clothes. It would have been devastating to have ruined one of her newer dresses like she had before. As she finished up, she heard the girl introduce herself. Her name was Yumina. It was a pretty name. "Marina Mikami," she replied back. "You can call me Rina," Even though she had lived her for awhile, it still threw her off sometimes that here people introduced themselves surname first. It was always a dead give away she was some type of foreigner, since she never did that.

Marina limped over to the doors of the supermarket and looked out. It looked just as creepy outside as it had on her way here. It didn't look like there was anything out on the streets though, besides maybe a coffin or two. She turned back toward Yumina, as she opened the door for her. "It doesn't look like anything is out there right now," she told her. "Do you have far to go?" Marina knew she at least just needed to get to a station and wait for all this to be over for the night. Electronics didn't seem to work at this time. It was kind of a pain.

[Yumina Makino]

Alright, her name was Mika Rina. That seemed easy enough to remember. Yumina repeated the name to herself a few times to make sure it would actually stick. She didn't want to accidentally forget and have to ask again.

Since Rina confirmed there weren't any monsters around, Yumina shuffled over to the open doorway. With none of the clocks working, it was hard to tell how much longer they'd have to wait before everything went back to normal. This hour always felt longer than it really was. They could probably find somewhere to hide, but it probably made more sense to just run for home. Metaphorically speaking. They were having a hard enough time with walking.

It took a second to figure out how to answer the question of how far away her home was. Technically, she did have a ways to go, not living in Shibuya and all. The again, she didn't plan on walking the entire way there. Eventually Yumina shook her head in response. "It's not that bad. If we can get to the station, the weird train should take care of the rest."

The one thing she appreciated about living with her aunt was how close they were to one of the major rail lines. It made getting around a lot easier, especially in times like these. As much as she wanted to get out of here, she had to make sure Rina wasn't going out of her way to help. "You might actually be closer, unless you don't live here either."

[Marina Mikami]

Marina gave a small nod as Yumina explained she had to get to the station as well. That was good, it meant both would be sticking around for a while. She gave a small smile at her mention of possibly being closer. She shook her head. "Unfortunately, I don't live anywhere near here. I need to head for the station too. I have to go all the way to Tokyo University,"she explained. It certainly was not convenient being in this state and having to get all the way over there. They didn't really have any options at the moment though.

Marina led them out of the supermarket and out onto the street. It was hard walking with her leg injured as it was, but her parasol was helping her to keep as much weight off it as possible. "Stay close," she told Yumina as she started heading in the direction of the station. It then occurred to Marina to maybe see how much Yumina knew about all this. Marina was lacking in information on pretty much everything after all. "So, do you know much about what's happening here?" she asked curious. "I kind of just started experiencing all this not too long ago," They needed to kill time as they limped to the station after all, right?

[Yumina Makino]

"Ah, that makes sense." Yumina already figured that Rina was closer to her sister's age, so going to a university was almost expected. There was always the option of being a freeloader like a certain sibling but this woman seemed too nice for that, so far. Maybe she was just really good at hiding what she actually thought.

Damn it, no getting distracted when there's a question to answer. If you're going to be rude, Yumina recalled someone saying, a least be mean of purpose. That didn't apply to this situation. "No, I haven't figured out much. I'm just kinda used to it by now." She paused for a step and tilted her head to the side. "Okay, maybe not the portals to Demonland. That's still weird."

Honestly most of this didn't make that much sense, unless she pretended this was all a part of some stupid game with dumb rules. There had to be some important person or demon that caused all of this to happen. It's the only explanation she could predict, but there's no point in freestyle guessing in front of somebody else. That was like guessing who the murderer was before anyone even died. More information needed to be found before they could discuss important stuff like that.

So instead of ranting on and assuming to know more than she did, Yumina shrugged again. Time to focus more on the conversation that's still happening. "Eh, this is only like, my third week. Not like you missed anything obvious. Doesn't sound like anyone else I met knew why all of this is going on either."

Not that she really stopped to ask people questions. Perhaps she should try talking to more of them.

[Marina Mikami]

Marina listened carefully to Yumina. It didn't sound like she had really figured much about what had been going on. That was a little disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. It wasn't like she was expecting to run into someone with all the answers right away. That would have been too lucky. She couldn't help but give a small smile "I don't think I could ever get used to this," she responded. It seemed like an impossible thing to get used to. Fighting who knows what, at the same time every day when people turned to coffins? Then again humans could get used to the strangest things.

She also noted Yumina mentioning what she referred to as "portals to Demonland." That was something Marina hadn't heard about before. Then again this was really only the second time she had gone out here intentionally. Portals were a new thing to her, she had only experienced what they were experiencing now. Yumnia then went on to say Marina had not missed much. Apparently there were more people than just them. She had already guessed there might be, but it was nice to have confirmation. Also it sounded like no one else really knew what was happening. Guess the only way anyone was to find anything out was to keep doing what they were doing.

Marina limped further down the road. Her leg still hurt pretty bad, but she was starting to get used to the pain. She made sure to look and see if Yumina was keeping the same pace as her. A question however, did suddenly come to mind. "Is everyone else you met about the same age as you or me?" she asked. It would be interesting to see if the people who even knew about these strange occurrences were in the teenager, young adult range. Was there a reason for that? So many questions that ran through her mind she had to stop from asking all at once. Marina didn't want to bombard the poor girl with too much.

[Yumina Makino]

At this rate, all the late-night adventuring was starting to become a hobby. Although, Yumina didn't keep at this because it was fun. Fighting sucked. The injuries kept getting worse and worse. Demon world was easy enough to ignore, but the dark hour thing happened every single night. Staying home and waiting for it to end didn't seem to do anything. "Somebody's gotta figure out a way to stop this, so it might as well be me."

The nobility of that sentence was lessened by the fact that she only felt the need to do this, because another person would never accomplish anything. An exaggeration, sure, but praying to be saved only worked if the rest of these guys were competent enough to pull it off. Some of them were pretty good, but not world-saving good.

"I think everyone's younger, yeah. Nobody really looked like they were old enough to be my mom, so they can't be past thirty." Yumina frowned while concentrating, making sure she didn't accidentally leave somebody out. Since she couldn't exactly go around asking for people's ages, that criteria seemed like the easiest way to figure it out herself. She rubbed some of the blood off her hand with the inside of her blazer. "Then again, I doubt I've seen everyone that can use these weird powers. Certainly hope we aren't outnumbered that bad."

She never actually cared before, but in hindsight that did look strange. Maybe there was some kind of pattern to all this, and only certain people are being chosen. "You haven't found anyone way older, then?"

[Marina Mikami]

Marina couldn't help but smile, though she tried to hide it. The world resting on the shoulders of a high schooler was a bit of a silly thought. Not like the world resting on her own shoulders wasn't just as ridiculous. Though she admired the bravery of that statement. She didn't think she would have been as brave at that age. Then again she barely thought she was brave enough now. "That's quite the burden to bear," she lightly teased. Though she appreciated that at least one person felt like it was an obligation to help.

Yumina then confirmed that she hadn't seen anyone past thirty. That was a bit concerning wasn't it? Not to mention odd. Was there a reason only teenagers and young adults were the ones that knew anything about this? That only seemed to raise further questions. Questions she wasn't going to bother Yumina with. It was unlikely either of them were going to figure anything out just speculating. Though she also said that she doubted she had met everyone. Marina knew she hadn't for sure, just Yumina and a boy the last time she had been to the supermarket.

Yumina asked if she had seen anyone older. She shook her head at the question. "This is only my second time out here on purpose," she explained to her. "I've only seen you and a boy a little older than you," At least she thought the boy was a bit older. She didn't know for sure. Though she was pretty sure she was the oldest one that she knew of that had a Persona. She hoped she wasn't the oldest, that would be scary. Though speaking of weird powers. "What exactly can you do?" she asked curious. She didn't mean it in a mean-spirited way or anything. Marina's power was obvious, she summoned a giant ball of ice and that was it currently. She hadn't really been able to tell what Yumina's persona could do.

[Yumina Makino]

Rina didn't know a whole lot more people. Figures.  If the age ceiling was that close, Yumina wondered who was the youngest among them. There better be somebody under her. Being the baby of the group would be miserable.

"I'm usually pretty good at. . ." Oh. Yumina was all set to start talking about her talents and things she actually enjoyed, but no. Time to go over the different skills her Persona had. People who didn't have dumb abilities probably enjoyed this better.

She looked away and covered her mouth mask how bad she felt. It wasn't good to show weakness, even though the spells really belonged to her Persona and not her. There had to be some way to get through this without getting too negative. Determined to end this quickly, she started smiling and look Rina directly in the eye.

"So far, Oberon can make any of these bad guys feel worse. It's not as direct as you people with your lightning bolts and dark balls of whatever." She frowned. "Two spells don't even work all the time, and one's even more useless. 'Cause it does nothing."

Damn, she couldn't pull it off for even a minute. Somewhere in there Yumina actually started complaining. Oberon might be a terrible Persona, but going into detail didn't make for a good conversation. She'd hate to listen to another person whine any further.  Mentioning the one good move should improve things. "The thing I do all the time slows them down, and some other stuff, to make it easier to fight them without any other special powers. Since it's always good there's no reason to not start with it."

Better, but still possibly annoying. Time to start shutting up. "So, yeah. I stab things unless they're gigantic. Sorry for going on about all that. I talk a bunch when I get the chance."

[Marina Mikami]

Marina listened to Yumina start to explain what her Persona could do. She started out seeming positive, but that quickly faded. It sounded like the Persona's spells affected the way a creature felt, though it didn't work all the time. She mentioned having a spell that did "nothing." That seemed odd. It probably just meant she hadn't figured out what it did exactly yet. Though the one spell she described sounded interesting. It was probably the reason why Marina managed to finish off the creature they had fought. She didn't know why Yumina was selling herself short, her abilities sounded like they could be useful.

She then gave her a reassuring smile when she apologized for talking so much. "You don't need to apologize. I like to listen to people talk. And I asked what you could do," she reassured. "You can do a lot more than me. All I do is summon ice. And then hit them with a parasol." When she mentioned the parasol, she motioned towards the one she was currently using to support her weight and keep herself off her injured foot. "Don't sell yourself short. You're probably the reason I managed to defeat that creature earlier," she told Yumina, hoping that would give her some confidence in her abilities.

She then thought about that spell Yumina mentioned was "useless." Maybe it wasn't meant to be used on the creatures? "I also don't think that spell you have doesn't do anything. You probably just haven't quite found out what it does yet. Maybe it's not meant to be used on an enemy?" she suggested to the high schooler. She gave her another smile. "Just something to think about at least," Marina then wondered if her own Persona would end up learning how to do more than just summon ice. Not that she was in a hurry to find out. She still didn't really want to be doing any fighting. But she wouldn't run away from this. If she had the power to help out, she would.

[Yumina Makino]

Sadly, being better than Rina didn't really mean anything these day. A few years ago that would be enough to boost her mood all the way to the top. Now, she knew better. In the grand scheme of things, it's entirely possible that they were both terrible. Having the title of second worst fighter was not something to cheer about. Regardless, Yumina certainly enjoyed hearing the girl mention that she would've lost without any intervention. With how badly they got beaten up, they only managed to survive by working together. That was great and all, but one day she'd have to get good enough to win without either of them being hurt this much.

That's a topic for another time. First, they still had to return to their respective homes. The pain in her side wasn't too bad, although she might just be used to it by now. It'd be smarter to check the damage, but she didn't want to find out that the bleeding was secretly getting worse. Thinking about literally anything else was preferable.

Considering some of the abilities used by the others, especially during that dog fight, she knew there were spells that targeted allies to help them. Besides healing, obviously. There's a good chance Rina's guess was correct. "Yeah, there hasn't been much time to experiment on people, especially when we got bigger problems to worry about."

Yumina thought she heard a noise coming from a nearby alleyway, but stopped worrying once nothing else happened. Must've been a cat. . . if they weren't all stuffed in tiny coffins right now. Perhaps they should try to limp faster.

What they really needed was a shortcut in order to get home faster. Of course, more Shadow men would be lurking in a lot of the obscure places to go. Not being a local to the area made it harder to remember any good ones that could still be safe enough to use. "If you aren't out doing this a lot," she began, "then how do you normally spend time?" The annoyance of the relative silence got in the way of her thinking. More talking was better than listening to nothing.

[Marina Mikami]

Marina couldn't help but smile a bit at Yumina mentioning there hadn't exactly been time to experiment on people with her skills. That was probably a good thing. Maybe that meant no one had been seriously injured enough to try using it? Who knew at this point? Whatever the case it didn't really matter right now, she figured Yumina would find out what it did in due time. She limped further down the road. She heard the odd noise or two, which made her nervous. Nothing happened, but it was unsettling all the same. Then again she wasn't sure if that or dead silence was a worse sign. She hoped they wouldn't find out.

Yumina then spoke up and asked what she did in her free time if it wasn't this all the time. She smiled. "Reading mostly. When I'm not in class anyway," she lightly joked. "And I watch a lot of movies. When I have the time. Or not too focused on a book," It was nice to be talking about more normal things. It helped take the focus away from being afraid or worried about her injury. Or the distance to the station that currently seemed way too far away. In the meantime it wouldn't hurt to go into knowing more normal things about each other.

"How about you? There has to be something you like doing besides hunting monsters," she teased. It was still a little weird to think about. Whoever in their right mind would ever think they would end up seeking out monsters to help them get stronger? It just wasn't something that happened normally. Apparently though it was what would be normal for them now. It kind of bothered her a little bit. Marina hoped it would be temporary and they figured out what exactly was going on. They were all just kids really, they deserved to have a normal life that was monster-free.

[Yumina Makino]

Ah, a normal conversation for once. Yumina knew they should be more focused on any nearby threats, but they deserved a minute of two of normality. Listening to Rina talk about regular things sounded a lot like the answer she would've given. So when the question got turned around, Yumina tried to find something unique to start with.

"Usually I end up going out with some friends, maybe watch some show or just go swimming, now that it's getting warmer out." The two of them were out this late, so the currently low temperature made it hard to imagine the warmth of late spring, almost summer. The cold breeze could not have had better timing.

"Not including the others, well, I'm kinda the same as you. Although, there's probably more reading. I have to get accepted to some good university, so there's a lot of free time spent studying English or History or whatever." Her grades weren't really all that special, unless cooking was involved. From what she heard, those tests and applications sounded pretty difficult, and she had to get better prepared by then. Rina would know more about the process of getting in, but this didn't feel like the right time to ask, if ever.

Yumina slowed to a stop as they came across a narrow alleyway. From the looks of it, the two of them still had enough room to walk side by side, but only barely. A third person would get uncomfortable. If she remembered the streets properly, this should be a path that could shave a couple minutes off the journey. Of course, it's not like she lived here and did this every day.

"This way should hopefully get us to the station faster." She pointed in the general direction. That sentence came out a lot more uncertain than intended. It couldn't convince an idiot, and Rina was better than that. Starting over from the beginning would be best. "No, it does. Used this last time I came back from that store. We can cut through here, if you wanna go faster."

[Marina Mikami]

Marina admittedly was a little jealous. She didn't have a whole lot of friends at the University to just go somewhere and hang out. But only a little. She wasn't exactly the most social person to begin with. "I can't remember the last time I went swimming..." she commented. After all, with no one to go with why bother? Then again she would probably just end up on the beach reading, instead of actually swimming in the water. She nodded at Yumina saying that she spent her time similarly. "The work just never ends does it?" she joked. High school was only a couple years ago but it felt like a whole lifetime ago. Though she didn't exactly want to go back to those years, she was glad with where she was at now.

They soon approached an alleyway and Yumina came to a stop. Did she need a break? Was her injury worsening? Like she was one to talk, every step Marina took just made her feel worse. They still had a ways to go though. Yumina soon explained that it was a shortcut. She didn't sound sure at first, but then reassured that it was a route she took before. Marina looked down alley. It was narrow, but there was enough room for them to walk side-to-side. Though it looked creepy. "I'm suddenly developing a case of claustrophobia..." she said with a nervous laugh. She thought about it for a moment. "But if its faster we should take it. Plus little rests against the walls might help save our strength," she finally said after she was done thinking.

She began the walk down the alleyway, lightly leaning against one of the walls and using it to help her walk along. She hoped with all her might they weren't attacked here. They could easily be trapped from both sides and maneuvering in it would be difficult. However, she couldn't keep moving on her injured leg. If they could save a few more minutes on their trip, Marina would gladly take it.