View source for Logs: Encountering Miwa

  Mikage-cho W - St. Hermelin???
       St. Hermelin, on the surface, is identical in Mikage-cho. This notion would be discarded somewhere along
 the way of witnessing people not being quite what they were! Between the feared Dean Harding becoming a caring
 individual and a popular educator turning into a mute - among other things - it's not long until any sense of
 familiarity goes to the wayside.          
       The school appears as it was in the 2008 school year. The old gymnasium hasn't been expanded as it was
 early in 2009, and there's no hole in the wall. Most of the classrooms do not even see use, the school
 population notably smaller. The library has undergone the most peculiar change - a foreboding black doorway
 sits near the back, the whole room coated in butterfly markings. Nobody is sure as to its purpose, or even
 how to open it. A loud heartbeat can be heard if you stand close to it.          
       People here live in fear of a girl in black, whose influence sometimes rearranges the school into a
 twisted set of corridors and dead-ends full of demons. Even a trip to the bathroom, in the best of times,
 can spell disaster.




It's incredible how much a shower, sleep in /an actual bed/ and a fresh change of clothes can improve your mood. Sure, Miwa's still stuck in some sort of horrible demon world inversion of Lunarvale (she's still not acknowledging the idea going around that the rest of Japan/the world has been destroyed; that's too awful to consider) but for the first time in quite some time, she's gotten a glimmer of hope back.

It's just a shame the St. Hermelin school uniform is so ugly. But beggars can't be choosers; it's not like her old outfit was any better, as torn and filthy as it was. It's currently sitting in a trashcan somewhere in the school.

She'd intended on heading back to the nurse's office, where Tohya was currently taking it easy. Poor girl, she'd overextended herself the other day; Miwa's not too knowledgeable about the specifics of Personas, but she'd wager, from her own areas of expertise, that extending that much supernatural power was incredibly draining. She can't even hold Ratri out a fraction of how long Tohya had managed.

There's just one problem: she's realized, as she headed back, that this wasn't the hallway she'd walked down earlier. Impossibly--really, she should stop being surprised like this, in the demon world--the school seems to have shifted on her. Maybe... someone's in this classroom over here, and they'll know what to do?



For A-ko, even almost a week after she woke up in this world and has met several people who've been put through some very harrowing experiences, it's still not quite real. *Is* it real? Who can say? Everything has that dreamy edge to it, like a music box playing a sweet, happy tune as the camera slowly pans over the torn corpses of a brutally murdered family and ends on a bloody teddy bear. A-ko may well be listening to such a tune on her headphones right now, and she's taking a nap on this desk right here as the tune wafts gently into her ears.

She's just now waking up as Miwa approaches the classroom, and yawns and rubs at her eyes before peering around the room sleepily. Man... how long was she asleep this time? She's all stiff now. A-ko gets up from her seat to stretch--oh, that's /so/ much better!



If this were a dream, it would be one that, in Miwa's opinion, had gone on far too long. Like maybe something like Sleeping Beauty: the princess lies asleep, not to awaken until the spell's broken.

...Actually, come to think of it, that analogy sort of works in a weird way, if what she's heard about the Harem Queen is true at all.

The door's pushed open and Miwa peeks around it warily, as if she's on the look out for a potential demon nest. While it's true that the overall demon population seems to be smaller/'friendlier' than back over on the East Side of Lunarvale, it didn't mean it was okay to suddenly drop her guard. Recent habits linger.

To her pleasant surprise, there's no demons in here, and in fact there is a another person instead! "Oh!" the Sevens senior says, slipping into the classroom and shutting the door behind herself. "I didn't mean to disturb you, but... I seem to have lost my way. Do you know how to get to the nurse's office?" Despite her uniform, Miwa's certainly no schoolmate that the girl's ever seen before, right?



Dreams can seem to last forever while you're still dreaming. Perhaps they've all fallen into a coma. Or maybe they've all died, or are on the cusp of death, and this is nothing more than a shared mass hallucination, to end when the last signals from their brains die out, like the last feeble flickering from a lightbulb filament nearing its end.

"Hmm?" A-ko blinks fuzzily at Miwa when she enters and addresses her, then gives her an equally fuzzy smile. "Nurse's office? Uhhh... Sure." No, Miwa sure *isn't* a classmate she recognizes, but then, she and Arisa didn't know each other either. A-ko doesn't assign any particular meaning to it, and as she starts waking back up, she heads for the sliding door on the other side of the classroom. "C'mon, follow me."



Well, it's heartening to think that at least someone's able to nap under these circumstances! And, good, maybe one of the students here (unless this girl is doing the same thing she's doing, anyway) will be able to lead her to the nurse's office. "Oh, thank you so much!" Miwa replies, moving to follow the mysterious girl as she makes for the other door in the classroom.

"Say, um, what's your name? I'm Miwa Saitou--I'm not a student here." Here she glances down and picks at the skirt. "I guess I'm just borrowing these clothes for now..." She'll spare the girl the whole sob story for now; god knows a lot of people have been in a bad situation, she's hardly the only one. It's been easier to have a better frame of mind since she broke free from the east.

"Is it normal, in here, for the halls to move around like this?" That's Miwa's next question of her guide through the labyrinth the school seems to have become.



"Hmmm?" A-ko glances over her shoulder at Miwa, looking over her uniform. The explanation gets a smile and a look of understanding. "Ahhh, I get you! Are you one of the people from 'outside,' then?" Understanding morphs into curiosity. "Where are you from?"

Her name? She supposes she should probably start taking that question seriously... But it's more fun that way! <3 If one of her classmates from the other world who actually *remembers* her shows up, well, then she'll come clean... but it's been oddly hard to find them. It seems like most of the kids here are from 'this' side or whatever...

"You can call me A-ko," the auburn-haired girl thus says, winking at her. Then she turns back during the halls. "Oh, it doesn't happen all the time. It's a real pain when it does, though," she replies. "I hear it's because of that Aki girl. I haven't met her myself, though."



Miwa nods, brushing her right forearm, as if something were stuck to her sleeve. Ugh, these uniforms are so dull; at least Sevens' black and white had an elegance to them. "Yes, that's right. I came here with a friend to go shopping before everything went crazy," she replies. "I'm from Sumaru City, and a third-year at Seven Sisters High. Have you ever been there?"

She blinks, slightly tilting her head to one side as she regards the girl. Eiko? Or--no, she meant A-ko, like in a short play. One teal eyebrow is raised. "Oh, I see..." Miwa replies, half-tempted to ask where B-ko has gone off to. Well, between a detective singing his lungs out the other day and all the various other methods of coping she's seen, she can't protest /too/ much.

"She's over here, too?" A slight note of panic to her voice, there. She's seen the results of Aki's idea of 'a fun time' before. Running water, ugh, she could yell at that little brat--almost. "...It's really for the best. She's not a nice person," Miwa says, glancing off to the side as she walks. "I... we were out in the east part of town, and... it almost seems like she's in charge over there."



St. Hermelin's green uniforms *are* pretty ugly, aren't they? The boys' uniforms are okay-ish, but the girls' just look so *ugly*. Well, A-ko got here on a scholarship and so doesn't have to pay a red yen for her tuition, so she can't really complain. If she were attending a school just for a pretty uniform, well...

"Sumaru, huh? No, I haven't. I hear it's a huge city, though," A-ko remarks, smiling over at Miwa. "Is it nice there?"

A shrug, then. "I guess so. The kids here seem pretty scared of her, but... well, *I've* never seen her," the brunette replies. She frowns in sympathy at the news of the east side. "I see... From what I hear, she's really scary, so I feel for you." Though, there was an east side of town? She can't recall ever hearing that before. Wait, didn't Himeru-chan say something about a tunnel or something...? Ah well, doesn't matter. "What was it like over there?"



Miwa really lucked out with Sevens, didn't she? Well, okay, it's not like any girls attend Kasugayama /anyway/ but just imagine if it weren't a boy's reform school full of loser delinquents! A bright blue girl's uniform... it kind of gives her the shivers.

An emphatic nod, at that! "Something's always happening in a big city like Sumaru. It's fun to keep up with it all, I think. Country towns have their own charms, too, but I don't think I could really live in a little town at all..." She smiles over at A-ko. "Don't you think?"

"You're really lucky to have avoided her," Miwa says, shaking her head. That's all she can really say; she hopes A-ko's luck holds. If this is the worst the west side experiences of Aki's whims, then, that's fine. Really.

"The other side of town? Well..." Miwa trails off, frowning faintly. She folds her arms across her chest as she walks. "...It was almost like a bomb went off. Or the end of the world happened. Buildings were ruined, there were demons everywhere..." she shivers, here, before finishing, "It's amazing how different it is, over here. It's like another world."



A-ko giggles back at Miwa as she leads her downstairs. "I wouldn't know! I've never lived in a little town either. I guess it's sort of always been somewhere in the middle, for me." Lunarvale's not too big, but it's certainly not a small town either--and there was that other place she lived... But that's not really all that important.

She shrugs. Whether she's lucky or not, she doesn't know; she'll just have to take Miwa's word for it. Honestly, A-ko's inclined to trust it. After all, everyone who's brought her up has seemed to be afraid of her. Sympathy returns to her expression when Miwa talks about the other side, though.

"Wow... it's really that bad? That sounds awful..." Maybe she *should* take a look around on that side, A-ko muses. If she's been lucky over here, then it isn't right to just be reveling in her good fortune... She ought to at lesat see with her own eyes how bad it is.

Maybe later. When she's gotten a little more prepared. Gotten a better weapon than her broom, at the very least! A-ko may be carefree, and have a tendency to space out when her headphones are on, but she's not *stupid*.



Nagaoka had been a big city, too, even if she'd lived with her parents, and then later with her grandparents for a while, more towards the suburban edges. It was still pretty busy, though. Maybe that was why; she was used to a faster-paced lifestyle from birth. She nods, at A-ko. While Lunarvale wasn't as big as Sumaru or even possibly Port Island, it was a good-sized city; definitely waaaay bigger than Inaba.

Another nod. Her demeanor's picked up a slightly more weary cast in spite of having the best night's sleep she's had in a week; this is due in part to Miwa reliving her trials of the previous week as well as not exactly wanting to dump /all/ of what she'd seen and done on some poor girl she's only just met. Also, she's hardly out of the woods yet.

"It's been... it's been awful," she agrees at length. "I mean, I imagine it's not all that easy over here, either, but..." There's a sidelong glance at A-ko as she walks along. Taking a guess at what might be on the girl's mind, she warns, "I wouldn't go over there, if I were you. Although..." she adds, easing away from the rather blunt warning as if it were an angry dog, "...I guess, if you were with other people, if you really had to, it might be a little better."



"Hmmm..." A-ko gives Miwa a thoughtful look when she guesses what the brunette had had in mind. Well... Fine. She'll think about it, in any case. If she doesn't have a reason beyond 'checking it out,' no point in bothering.

"Okay," she replies, giving her a nod, before taking Miwa the rest of the way to the nurse's office!
[[Category: Logs]]