Title: The Games We Play....
Summary: KazuoKazuo, Jirou, and Naoki go to Port Island’s Paulownia Mall, heading for the Game Panic Arcade! But Kazuo runs into someone on the way who seems like she could use some help....
Who: Kazuo Yuudai, Masumi Hayashi.
Location: Port Island — Paulownia Mall



Just beyond the bridge connecting the mainland to the artificial island this part of town is named for, Paulownia Mall is a small but happening place at nearly all times of the day. It is renowned for its convenience in stark contrast to how small the mall is, and is a popular hangout spot for just about everyone.
Circular in shape with a clean reflective floor, while the walls give off the appearance of an old, humble establishment built from wood. It is bright all times of the day thanks to lightning above every store entrance. The Chagall Cafe appeals to those with sophisticated tastes in coffee, where the Game Panic arcade, Power Records music store, and Mandragora karaoke studio are all hits with the teenage crowd. Be Blue V is a very successful jewelry chain. Aohige Pharmacy keeps Satomi Tadashi at bay with its Saturday sales. Shinshoudo Antiques has an odd air to it, as it is rumored that it may deal more than just the namesake. Club Escapade provides a more grown-up place for relaxation at night. A helpful police station is on hand, but if you have the right connections, it can offer arms and armor.
Recently, someone has been dumping a small fortune into the three fountains strewn within the mall. Nobody is sure as to where all this money is coming from. The fountains are so saturated with coins that it is impossible to tell what the bottom of the fountains look like.

Masumi Hayashi...is still pretty much exhausted.

But even though Kasumi’s Christmas Eve party the other night was more than a little overwhelming for her, and she ended up leaving for quite a while in the middle in order to clear her head with a walk through the cold night air, she also realized something through it. That is, she realized that given what she’s struggling against, she really is not going to make any progress by simply passively resisting and waiting for what feels like the proper moment to move forward. She really should have realized it sooner, as she found herself slipping further and further underneath the pressure of keeping the Shadow bound behind walls of control and willpower, but perhaps it took something of a boost in the right direction from an external source to give her a little bit of momentum to actually work with.

But we digress.

It is late morning on the day after the last day of school for the term -- and there was much rejoicing from all -- and one Masumi Hayashi is just now exiting the Aohige Pharmacy, carrying a couple of bags with her. Although pretty enough in passing, there’s a certain distinct...plainness about her that doesn’t entirely warrant a second look from anyone (although her silver hair which cascades freely down to her waist might catch one’s eye, if only because of how unusual a color it is). However, anyone who does happen to take a second look might find themselves glancing back for a third or fourth, if only to puzzle out the actual gender of the person they just passed. There’s just a certain noticeable androdgyny about this particular person that actually makes it very difficult to tell if they are male or female.


It’s winter break, whoo-hoo! And it’s the birthright of every high schooler to do something. Kazuo’s heard about the Arcade in the Paulownia Mall here in Port Island. From Naoki, of course -- despite being a NERD, Naoki Tezuka is also an avid player of first-person shooters, believe it or not.

However, Jirou is the one who’s more excited; he hasn’t gotten to play his favorite motorcycle racing game, and wants to see if this arcade has it. He’s acting quite like an overly hyper five-year-old as the three of them enter the mall. Of course, he goes in first. And he’s not looking where he’s going.

Fact, as he turns to look at Kazuo and Naoki, he continues walking. Backwards. And it’s entirely likely that he just might be about to run into anyone who’s behind him. “Hey! C’mon, you guys! You’re walkin’ too slow!” he complains.

“Hotaka! Watch where you’re going!” Naoki admonishes. “You’re gonna run into somebody....”

Kazuo? He just facepalms.


Normally, Masumi’s reflexes and awareness of her surroundings at nearly all times are rather enviable, born from a swift mind and further honed by necessity in more dangerous places than one would immediately assume just to look at her pretty face. That said, this is very much not ‘normally,’ and though she really is starting to make an effort to get out more and pursue the things which she enjoys doing, the simple fact of the matter is that she’s largely still just tired. Right now, she just does not have the mental stamina to both entertain all the thoughts rapid-firing through her head and any kind of decent awareness of her surroundings.

Which is ultimately why it takes her so off-guard when she very abruptly finds her path blocked by someone who is not only not paying any attention at all, but actually walking backwards -- that is, it’s rather abrupt because in the very next moment, she finds herself on the ground with a small yelp of surprise, before her mind can even manage to pull itself from her own internal introspection to address the physical world and process what the hell just happened.

Her purse and bags fall to the floor with her, and a small assortment of cosmetics and a couple different medications spill out across the floor. One of them is already rolling away.


The bottle that is rolling away rolls back, until it comes to a stop against Kazuo’s foot. He looks to see what hit his foot -- as he’d been more concerned with trying to keep Jirou from making an ass of himself (which by now is clearly a wasted effort) -- and after that, his concern was with the girl Jirou ran into.

As for Jirou, the impact stuns him as well, and he falls facedown on the ground. Probably more because he got startled and tripped over his own feet. Naoki moves to help Jirou, and Kazuo moves to help the person they ran into. He crouches down near Masumi and starts picking up her spilled items. He looks up, pausing a moment, to note, “I’m sorry about that...Hotaka wasn’t watching where he was going...are you all right?”


Masumi recovers presently, and for a moment, she seems downright livid. “Right, because walking backwards is totally a good idea,” she snaps almost immediately at Jirou as they both work to collect themselves-- her tone actually isn’t very loud at all, but there’s definitely an aggressive incisiveness in her heavily sarcastic tone, while her azure eyes flash sharply, angrily. “Trust a guy to do something that stupid,” she snaps further as she at least tries to shove Kazuo out of her personal space in order to finish collecting her spilled items.


Kazuo’s response to her scathing tone is a raised eyebrow. Jirou’s managed to collect himself, and dusts himself off as he stands. And he does indeed note her tone. “Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were back there,” he offers. He’s keeping a more or less polite tone. He’s a little peeved, yes...but he knows it happened because of him. And that she took the worst of it.

The latter comment, however, draws a different response from Kazuo. He smirks, and notes, “...Answers one question, anyway.” He stands, still looking at the prescription bottle on his hand. She feels the need to spit venom? Well then, he has no qualms about looking at her presciption. Though granted, it’s only a quick glance, and he’s no pharmacologist.

He backs out of her personal space without complaint, still holding the bottle. “...Missing something still?” He indicates the bottle still held in his hand, the one that rolled against his foot, shaking it slightly. On eof his eyebrows is raised, and he has a partially amused expression on his face.

Kazuo entertains the notion of playing ‘keep away’ with it...but decides against it. Not only because that would be unnecessarily mean, but because she’d probably kick him somewhere he really didn’t want injured....


A quick glance at the bottle notes it as being Spironolactone. What it’s for is probably not something that Kazuo knows immediately off-hand, all things considered.

As she picks herself up off the ground, Masumi brings one soft, delicate-looking hand to the bridge of her nose, pinching there is if in response to a sudden headache. She actually appears to be largely blocking out what the two boys are saying as she, with obvious intent, begins to slowly and deeply inhale, then exhale. Then again. And again. It’s a regular, steady, and rather calming rhythm that gives her something to focus on as she works to release the abrupt spike of anger she’s feeling. Because as much as she finds herself wanting to continue to entertain it, she knows she can’t. She cannot give the Shadow any openings.

However, a process that would have lead to calming down and likely apologizing for her scathing retort for what was clearly a simple accident (and one both of them were responsible for) is abruptly interrupted at the sound of a prescription bottle shaking. Immediately, her attention snaps back to the immediate and physical world, and the look in her eyes is one of pure ice. “Give it back. Now.” Her tone is deceptively quiet, and carries a weight of heavy, unspoken threat that probably confirms Kazuo’s worries. All told, it likely is for the best that he stopped at the verbal taunt, rather than extending it by actively playing ‘keep away.’


The woman’s visible, palpable anger has Jirou and Naoki backing away, with the smaller of the two using his larger friend as a shield in case the woman snaps and goes postal on them. Despite the display, Kazuo doesn’t seem all that scared. Or if he is, he’s keeping it carefully hidden. What is clear is that he is watching her carefully.

Kazuo offers the bottle immediately, though not out of any real fear he might have of her. He offers the bottle freely, explaining calmly, “It rolled out of your bag and stopped at my foot, so I picked it up.” Hopefully his calm tone will help make her realize he’s not trying to upset her, merely to make sure she has all her stuff.


Masumi is not taking any chances, not with something so critical. As it is, it’s starting to get more than a little difficult even affording the growing number of medical expenses she’s incurring on top of everything else, and she’s already dealing with enough from all the other stresses in her life, including keeping her Shadow locked back behind mental walls of discipline and will. The last thing she needs is to be struggling with hormonal imbalances because some jackass decided to indulge in his...jackassness.

The silver-haired teen eyes Kazuo warily as she steps forward and all but snatches the bottle out of his hand, as if not entirely convinced he wasn’t going to yank it back out of her reach at the last moment to taunt her. It’s a little frustrating, because normally she’d be able to get a better read of what kind of person he actually is, but... Really, she’s probably never going to get accustomed to the lack of the sixth sense which she came to rely upon so heavily. Not until she finds a way to fix all of this and get it back properly.

Kazuo has no intentions of yanking the bottle away. She obviously needs it (though probably not for the reasons Kazuo’s starting to imagine), and there’s no need in being a total jerk about it. He had his moments yes...but now was not one of them. He turns his head slightly, to address Jirou and Naoki. “...Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.” Mainly since, if anything happens, he’d feel better if they weren’t there to see it.

“...You sure, Yuudai?” Jirou inquires. Kazuo nods, once. “Okay. You need help, just yell.” He grins, and then he and Naoki vacate the area, headed for the Arcade.

“I’m sorry about that,” Kazuo ventures calmly when the other two have left. “He was excited about seeing if there was a certain game in the arcade here.” Sure, he hadn’t been the one to run into her, but Jirou was with him, so...guilt by association.


Masumi returns the bottle to her bag, sliding both of them back up onto her shoulder so that her hands are free, then glances away with a slightly-frustrated sigh as Kazuo apologizes. It’s hard to stay angry when the other person continues to so steadfastly remain calm -- but really, she reflects, it’s just as well. She really, really just needs to let this go and calm back down. The more she lets her own response escalate, the more openings the Shadow has to slip through. All things considered, it probably already has, even if just a little; she’s not normally this irritable.

“I’m sorry,” she says quietly, focusing on steadying her breathing once more even as she brings both soft hands in front of herself and steeples them together. Inhale for the count of four. Hold for the count of four. Exhale for the count of four. Hold for the count of four. Deep, constant rhythm. She knows she probably looks at least a touch bizarre, but, well, it would hardly be the first time, nor the last. “It’s just been a long...” Week, month, months? “Year,” she finally settles on.


Kazuo doesn’t know much how to deal with angry women. He just hopes that dealing with her in a calm fashion, like he would anyone else who was angry with him, will work. Because throwing down with a woman inside a mall is...not really something he’d like to do.

Thankfully, she seems to be calming down now, and Kazuo offers a smile. He doesn’t interrupt her calming and centering of herself, he does similar breathing exercises when he practices. Finally, when she speaks, he nods. “That’s understandable,” he replies, keeping his voice calm. “Are you all right?”


Masumi has definitely had better times in her life -- or maybe she really hasn’t. It’s somewhat ironic, now that she thinks about it, that the last year has in some ways been her absolute worst, and in other ways has been her absolute best. Then again, in many ways, they’ve been two sides to the same coin, with the same exact experiences having both extremely difficult repurcussions while simultaneously leading to almost unbelievably amazing opportunities. Hm.

At any rate, she doesn’t really have any particular desire to discuss specifics with a complete stranger; as it is, she already said more than she meant when she finally settled on ‘year.’ Masumi looks up, shrugging slightly in a gesture that’s overtly noncommittal. “I suppose that I will be.” There’s a short moment of silence, and then she follows it up with, “Anyway, thank you for your help; I should be going now.” A little stiff, she recognizes mentally, but she’s not overly concerned when it comes to someone she doesn’t know and will probably never see again.


Well, whether Kazuo read anything more than just ‘it’s been a tough year’ or not is debatable; from the looks of it, he took her words at face value. Given that he knows nothing about her or her case, it’s not likely. Besides, it’s her business, and if she wants to tell him, she will on her own, without prompting. Which is not likely given that they’re strangers. But that can be fixed.

Kazuo nods to her words, perhaps recognizing the ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ in her countenance. Really? It’s kind of refreshing to meet someone whom being around doesn’t include a plethora of sensory input that’s coming from someplace unknown. He has no way of knowing her situation where that’s concerned. All he knows is he hasn’t had to block out weird smells in his time around her.

So, perhaps that’s what prompts his offer. “Hey.” He pauses a moment, to pull out a small piece of paper and a pen, and scribbles something down. Once he’s done writing, he folds the small slip and offers it to her. “My cell number.” As he says the next, his voice is soft. “I know you only just met me...but maybe having someone to talk to might help.” It’s just a cell phone number, not his land-line. That would be stupid on so many levels.

Oh. If she accepts the slip, his name’s on there, too -- Kazuo Yuudai.


Masumi purses her lips in thought as Kazuo scribbles his name and number down on the piece of paper, then offers it to her. “Mm, maybe,” she replies noncomittally, but does accept it, nonetheless. Under ordinary circumstances, she’d actually be much more enthusiastic about it (but then, under normal circumstances, she’d probably actually stick around and talk for a little while), but as things stand right now, she has no way of knowing that Kazuo is Awakened to the power of Persona and thus no particular reason to actually talk.
And so with that, she offers the other teen a nod, then begins to walk off further into the mall. It was...an interesting diversion if nothing else, she reflects as the faintest hint of a smile quirks the edges of her lips just slightly upwards with mild good humor at the thought.



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