Akemi Runs Her Second Test (log6)

 Akemi Ohashi sat quietly at a table for two, drumming her fingers on the table. Increasing n by one wouldn't really do much to improve the soundness of her methods, but was the best that could suffice if nobody else would give her the time of day. Plus, it was doubling the data already available to her, and, from an altrustic perspective, the boy was probably fairly confused by the whole twenty-five hours business. So, one short phone call away, and there was a date. It was fairly close to midnight- not so close that the Dark Hour was a looming threat, but close enough that, if they decided to run a test, its appartment-preserving properties could be exploited. A cup of coffee on the table grew cold as she looked out the window and waited.

The quiet jingling of bells is heard as the doors of the cafe are opened. Stepping inside quietly with less ridiculous shoes this time around, Yuuki blinks from behind a pair of eyeglasses as his gaze drifts from left to right before he spots Akemi sitting at the table. Considering the entire practically terrifying ordeal he had went through, the slightly agitated expression on his face- that being pursed lips and furrowed brows, is one that isn't uncalled for. Regardless of that fact though, he takes in a quiet breath through his nostrils before letting out a slight sigh. Turning to his right a bit, he walks over towards the table that she stands at, looking to her as he stops at the chair across from her, pulling it out as he speaks up. "Hey- I'm here.." he says, having not bothered to make an order as he situates himself down upon the chair. Looking over towards her quietly, he quirks his right brow and offers a bit of a frown as he says, "So again- why do you need /me/? Didn't you get all the info you needed when you like-- I don't know, probed Kai?"

Akemi Ohashi sighs. "Hikaru-san, have you ever even taken a stats class- no, you wouldn't have. Dammit. Well, the point is- I need a bigger sample size. If I extrapolate just from test results with Kai, I can assure you that there is a one hundred percent chance of me accidentally burning down my room. But- Kai could have been just a fluke! You could respond to the treatment extremely well, and then I could conclude that there is a non-zero chance of me /not/ burning down my room. And since you were stressed out and borderline comatose during the first trial, I'm lacking data points," Akemi lectures, full-on little professsor mode engaged. "Does that make sense?"

Lowering his brows slightly, squinting at Akemi for a moment or two before his expression relaxes slightly, his eyes glancing down towards the table as he rests his right elbow down on the tabletop, before resting his cheek against his right hand. "So like, correct me if I'm wrong, but the sole reason you want me is because you're afraid of burning down your apartment. You know, I don't know how you evil scientists work but..." he begins, his and slipping from his cheek to rest his forearm down on the tabletop, "Taking into consideration the amount of damage that could have been sustained from that test, wouldn't the logical route would have been to /not/ do it in a apartment building to begin with? Not only does it seem like a bad idea due to loss of equipment, but that seemed kinda cramped in my opinion for some testing of super freaky-deaky supernatural stuff anyways. Why not rent out some place relatively close by?" he begins to ask, opening his mouth as if he's about to say more before he stops, and simply shuts his eyes for a moment and leans back in his seat. "Whatever- I guess it'd be best to try the test with multiple individuals regardless. That's the only way you'd really get a pattern- at least in my opinion." he says before he leans his head forward slightly and looks over to her with a raised right brow. "But what do you mean 'burn down' your apartment? Kai never said anything about a fire." he says with a slightly confused stare.

Akemi Ohashi blushes slightly. "Er- I mean- okay, it was a pretty bad idea. I can't exactly rent out anything else because I'm unemployed and becoming employed would be a waste of my time. But, this time, we're going to take the potentially less-ethical route. It's not like anyone in my university's going to have booked Hour 25 for labtime, you know?"

 Akemi's eyes narrow. "Yeah, Kai's Persona went a little bit nuts, tried burning down my appartment. Apparently, though, the Dark Hour makes everything fireproof-ish. Singed some paper, but no harm done. If it hadn't been at that time, though, I can't even imagine how I'd explain that to my brother. Or where I'd go after that, for that matter."

Yuuki stares for a second or two, a slow grin creeping over his expression as he quietly suppresses a chuckle, his right hand coming over to cover his mouth for a moment. Taking in a deep breath, he collects himself and narrowly avoids drawing attention via excessive laughter as he lets out a sigh with a amused smirk. "You sure he didn't just say that and decided he'd push his luck?" he asks in a joking manner before he shrugs, "If the uh.. 'Dark Hour' doesn't really allow for too major of environmental damage, then that's pretty interesting.. And I'm sure you could find someplace relatively cheap, uh, somewhere around here. Probably." he says with a shrug. Crossing his right leg over his left, he tilts his head to the side, "But if his Persona went nuts, then that kinda makes me worried.. I don't entirely know how mine will act." he mentions with a blink, despite his still rather amused expression before his right hand comes to scratch his cheek. "But I guess we'll just have to like, find out."

"Adventurous. It probably depends on what yours... does, I guess. I take it that Kai's already lit things on fire without being uncontrolled and dangerous. But if yours' whole thing is like, punching, it's probably a lot less dangerous. If yours' whole thing is neurotoxins, more dangerous," Akemi says, taking a sip of coffee more out of habit than anything else, "which reminds me- what the hell can these things do, anyway. Their untapped potential is the primary motivator for my research into them, but if it turns out all they are are glorified lighters... well, I'll probably keep investigating, but I'm not about to risk my life for it."
Yuuki Hikaru leans his head back, staring towards the ceiling for a moment as his expression becomes a bit blank before he shrugs, shutting his eyes for a moment. "Truth is I have little to no idea what these are. I mean, at one point mine talked to me.. I think. So according to him, or it or.. I don't know, maybe it's a girl.. But according to it, we're the same person? But I'm pretty sure I'd know if I was going around with swords and stuff shooting magical wizard stuff out of my fingers." he says before his brows furrow and he leans forward, uncrossing his legs as he sits there, opening his eyes. "Maybe it's kinda like Pokemon, except you only really get one- It's something you use to fight other big bad monsters because you, yourself, can't do it. It's got like, a set of abilities with certain properties, and as you go around beating stuff up it develops? I'm not sure because well, I don't feel like mine has developed or anything because I don't go around beating stuff up too often." he says with a shrug, "But I guess it's something like that?" he says in more of a questioning, unsure manner as he tilts his head to the side.

Akemi Ohashi grimaces. "According to an associate of mine, who, unfortunately, refuses to participate in the experiment, Personae are... he said a lot of things. They're our souls, they're our inner strength to not die, stuff like that. And of course, they fight monsters. But if I wanted a weapon- well, we have those. They're called atomic bombs, and if you search your cultural conciousness I'm sure you can tell how effective they are at stopping people from fighting. Or, if I didn't feel like causing unjustifiable amounts of collatoral damage, there's always guns. If that's all these things are, weapons, then I don't see the point in having one. And yet..." Akemi says, trailing off. She stirs her cooling coffee idlely. "If Personae are supposed to be your soul, or your inner strength, or- whatever, there's got to be something more to them. Can they be used for constructive purposes? Can Personae be used to heal- even things beyond the reach of modern medicine? If someone is their Persona, if we could perserve their Persona post-mortem, somehow, could we keep them alive? /These/, then, are the questions I seek to address with my research. But the first step is bringing mine out, and bringing it to its limits. And that's, obviously, why I need this round of tests, and why your compliance is so important," Akemi finishes. She exhales. "It's strange- it's almost like I can feel it, in the back of my mind, waiting for something to call out to it and to give it shape. But maybe it's psychosomatic," she says, shaking her head. "So, I guess, do you already know the answer to any of my research questions? And, more importantly, how likely are you to break a neurology lab if it runs amock?"

Yuuki Hikaru shakes his head quietly, "The first question I can't really answer- like I said I don't really know myself. Everything you've pretty much said, aside from y'know atomic bombs and stuff, is news to me." he admits, tapping his index finger against the tabletop quietly in a interval of a few seconds. "It never really did occur to me that these things may be manifestations or our wills to survive or simply a physical form of our souls. I guess I didn't think into it too much like that- but I kind of agree with you. I doubt our souls are simply meant as weapons, considering that's what they may very well be. But with my persona out..." he begins blinking for a moment, "Well, I don't know if this is a research question of yours but... In all of the few occasion's I've had to use my persona, I've found myself fatigued quickly whenever it enters combat or takes significant actions- whenever it's injured I feel the pain in some description and so forth.. And as such it's never directly interacted with myself. This may confirm the theory of it being in some manner a projection of ourselves, be it our will to survive or souls.. But this also means that your suggestion of preserving a Persona after- well.. I guess you could get the picture, somewhat." he says with a shrug and a frown. "And to answer the other question- I have no real idea. Like I said, I don't go around beating the crap out of things often with my Persona, but it seems to be based around going in somewhere fast, hitting things hard and getting out... It's pretty aggressive, so you should expect that, I guess?"

"It's fine," Akemi says, although her face looked downcast, "I didn't expect you to have all the answers. I'm not terribly concerned with your Persona's agression- it's a neurosci lab, we keep monkeys in there some times. They can be pretty big shits, so as long as you aren't wont to light things on fire or, I don't know, flood the room with poison, we're probably fine. That said- we're burning time here. Want to get going?"

Yuuki Hikaru shrugs his shoulders as he grunts leaning forward slightly as he rises off of his chair and brings his right hand over to push in the seat. "Well, I don't remember mine spewing out poison, so we may be fine." he says with a blink, grunting as he shuts his eyes, bending his back slightly as he stretches his arms out overhead and lets out a quiet grunt, before relaxing his posture and bringing his arms back down to his sides. "But yeah, lets go. After all I've got quite a ways to go to get home." he says with a lopsided grin and a shrug.

Akemi Ohashi rises quickly, leaving payment for her beverage on the table and scowling slightly at the cost. "Right, then," she says, "follow me?"
[OOC] Akemi Ohashi says, "let's go on a Magical Adventure to Portugese Man University!"
[OOC] Yuuki Hikaru says, "Sounds like a jolly good time to me."

The Fra Mauro University Neurology Department Laboritory was, even at a few minutes to midnight, well populated with undergrads poking at worm neurons. It was the sort of environment that would be less-than ideal for the testing of supernatural ghosts and their abilities. Akemi practically drags her companion through the campus and into the laboritory. "In a few minutes, we'll have all the space we need, of course," Akemi says as she reaches into her bag for her customary pad and pencil. "Nervous? Any concerns? Respiratory conditions I should know about?"

"No... No, none of those." says Yuuki as he looks around, taking in the sights quietly. He seems to be making the most out of being guided along through the campus and lab, sparing glances at his surroundings. His right hand comes over to adjust his glasses, before he looks over to Akemi, watch her reaching around in her bag before he simply looks down to his pocket, reaching in and taking out his phone, looking over the time before he holds the side button and shuts it off, putting it away. "This will be quick.. Right?" he asks, still looking around himself curiously.

Akemi Ohashi says, "Define quick," just as the clock winds down. Eerie greenness fills the room as the electric lights shut off- yet, the room is still clearly visable by the massive and terrifying moon in the background. The hapless undergrad students are sealed in red coffins. The sight never fails to curdle Akemi's blood, no matter how common it's become. She takes a moment to catch her breath, and then continues as though nothing had changed. "Well, it will take a reletively short span of time, if you have a date you don't want to miss. Your subjective time, though- the gas simulates dying. Dying slows your perception of time. So. It's all reletive. To basics, though- mind summoning your Persona like you always do, Hikaru-san?" Akemi asks, pencil already on the page, ready to take exacting notes. "Obviously if there's something different about yours and Takigawa-san's, we're going to need to know so we can formulate alternate hypotheses."

Yuuki opens his mouth, just about to begin to define what he meant by quick before he stops, pursing his lips as he takes in the change. Shivering slightly, he furrows his brows before he takes in a deep breath and lets out a quiet sigh. "Right, I'm probably not going to get used to that." he mutters under his breath before he looks up and around. "I see.." he says when Akemi gives her explanations, and then he looks over towards her when he hears her request. "Oh uh, sure." he says with a nod. Reaching into his back pocket, he takes out a wallet and zips it open, reaching in before he takes out a card- a tarot card at that. Turning it to look over it himself, reading it- 'XIII Death', with its dark, blue imagery. Staring at it for a second, he shuts his eyes for a moment before opening them again, opening his mouth as he speaks. "Persona.." he says, before he goes about guiding his left hand over to tear the card in half, before it breaks into small shards in a glass-like matter and glow with a light blue hue, fluttering down towards the ground before fading away, as if simply disappearing. Around him, a circle of blue light rises up, and as if a upward draft were to come, his clothes begin to blow up mimicing so. Behind him, a massive figure begins to rise up. Covered solely by a black cloak and standing at a height of around 9 feet and seven or so inches tall, with pale skin and features similar to that of Yuuki's except with drastic differences, that of which being a skeleton left arm and leg with the majority of the limbs hidden away by the black cloth wrapped around it- a hooded figure with a massive sword that it holds down at its side, resting against the floor now stands behind Yuuki- whom's breath is a bit deeper and has become a small bit faster.

There's a soft gasp as Akemi finds herself suddenly short on breath. It was nothing compaired to earlier reactions, of course, but seeing the impossible would always stun her, just a little bit. She recovers her composure with characteristic speed and scribbles down details in her notebook as fast as she can manage. "Facinating- still human, still likely male, but a completely different design, discounting even the obviously different abilities. Does this one have a name, Hikaru-san?"

Yuuki Hikaru stares at the ground for a moment, blank expressioned before he seemingly clicks into reality, looking up with his mouth slightly agape before he nods. "Apparently, his name is Cichol." he says with a tilt of his head to the side, his gaze remaining on the ground, whilst the aformentioned Cichol's eyes glare around the room for a moment, before falling on Akemi, staring at her for a second before carrying on with its routine of simply looking around in a stoic manner once again. "At least, that's what he said." adds Yuuki with a shrug as he looks up from the ground towards Akemi.

One wandering thought bumped into another wandering thought somewhere deep in Akemi's skull. "He talks? You mentioned it but- jeeze- this opens up avenues of research of which I had never dreamed- he can tell you things you don't know? Fuck! I-" Akemi screamed before half biting her tounge off. "No, no, no. It can wait until I have my own. Or- not now, at least". Akemi breathes deeply to calm herself. "Okay, okay. Can you make him go away, real quick? We need to see if you can keep a handle on him under the influence of the stuff. Right, that's why we're here," she says, more to remind herself than to remind her guest.

Simply watching her for a moment as she has her little moment, Yuuki blinks and simply glances off down to his side, "Well it's not so much that he talks to me... He's only talked to me once. That's when I first 'met' him I guess, and that's when he told me his name." he says before looking back to her with a shrug. Frowning slightly with a deep breath again, he takes a short moment to continue collecting himself before his breathing begins to go back to how it was previously. At her other request, Yuuki looks up and nod, and though he doesn't say anything and simply looks back over his shoulder at the large figure behind himself, Cichol begins to fade away into simple transparency, before the spot where he stood was vacant as if nothing were there to begin with. Looking back over towards her, he speaks, "There."
Akemi's hands begin to shake, quite of their own accord. "Okay, I'm going to need you to..." Akemi trails off as she retrieves a little pony bottle, its size completely unindicative of its high weight, attatched to a breathing apperatus. "I obtained this from a scuba store, after Kai blew the last one up. Please refain from blowing this one up- I am officially broke. That said, put it on, and tell me when to go. It'll feel like you're suffocating, and either you'll pass out, at which point I'll remove the apperatus, or your Persona will come out, at which point I will severely hope not to be killed. Understand?" Akemi says as she tosses Yuuki the bottle.

Yuuki Hikaru grunts as he leans forward slightly to catch the bottle. Judging its weight he lowers his brows as he stares at it for a moment, scanning it over slowly before he brings over the device, silently shutting his eyes for a moment as he fits it over his face. Opening his eyes, he feels it for a brief moment or two before his eyes flit over to look to Akemi bringing his right hand over to offer a thumbs up to signify that he's ready, despite looking a bit anxious and nervous, with a furrow of his brows and quick glances all around.

Akemi Ohashi reaches over and turns on the bottle, before darting her hand away. Her body tenses involentarily- if the last time was any indication, Akemi was in some pretty appreciable danger.

His breathing growing heavier and heavier by the moment and his eyes flitting open and closed more and mote by a bit, Yuuki grunts as he resides in his spot, his eyes darting along as his breathing grows more and more in pace as he becomes more and more nervous as it seems, his eyes beginning to struggle more and more to keep open before finally he falls to a knee, catching himself with his left hand, and from there that appears to be the trigger-- A large circle forms around him and light blasts up once again, what earlier was just a breeze now seems like heavy gusts of winds as his clothes blow upwards violently, and a skeletal hand reaches up and out, bending to plant it on the ground behind Yuuki as the earlier described Cichol comes out, frowning with low hanging brows as it pulls itself up and out from the seeming summoning circle that formed under it, pulling its sword up and resting it on its shoulder for a moment, it plants is left foot forward besides Yuuki as it brings its sword down to its side, swinging it up and around before crashing it down besides itself, its skeletal hand coming around to face its open palm upwards, its fingers tensing as a black orb of a swirling black mass forms within it. Its left arm comes back and begins to swing around as if it were about to hurl the ball of darkness right at Akemi before it stops, with Yuuki prying off the mask and bringing his left hand back in the opposite direction, back towards the area behind himself as he begins to collect him as he gasps for air, out of a mixture of fatigue and anxiousness no doubt. Without sparing a glance away from her, it clenches its fingers around the dark orb and allows it to slips through its bony fingers and dissipate into the air before it adjusts its posture and threateningly holds it sword at its side still, staring at her while occasionally sparing a glance around itself as it seemingly watches over Yuuki as he gets a hold of himself, "S--" he goes to begin before coughing, grunting as he looks back over to Akemi in a frustrated manner, "Satisfied..?"

For a moment, Akemi says nothing, staring wide-eyed at where the figure was. She hears whispers in the back of her mind. Slowly, slowly, she tears out a sheet of paper from her notebook, covered in notes, and crumples it up. "Y-yes, Hikaru-san, perfectly satisfactory. Charbogen- no, officially done with this possibility. I- there are alternate- are you okay, Y- Hikaru-san?"
Yuuki Hikaru grunts, taking in a few more deep breaths as he brings his hands along, planting them onto the ground as he pushes himself up, staggering to the side to the bit as he goes about straightening himself out, his right hand coming over to rub his forehead as he shrugs, frowning, "I'm getting better.." he says, his eyes glancing around for a moment as does Cichols. After a while, Cichol adjusts his posture once more, before he goes about fading away into transparency once again- mostly likely done by Yuuki, who at the moment is notably sweating a bit and is still seemingly trying to catch his breath.

Breathing comes a bit easier to Akemi. Her heart still hammers so loudly in her chest it's surprising that others can't hear it. "W-well, then. I owe you, Hikaru-san. Are you going to eschew material recompense as readily as Takigawa-san did?

Yuuki grunts, looking around slowly for a moment or two before he simply grunts, slipping his left hand into his pocket as his right hand comes around to wipe away at some sweat from his brow. "I just.. I've better get going home..." he simply says, clearly not keen on staying where he is at the moment as he turns around on his heels and begins to look around for the apparent exits, his breathing beginning to become softer and not nearly as fast as he stands there and looks around, his expression relaxing.

"I-" Akemi says, but the sentence dies in her throat. "Where do you live, then? Do you need me to accompany you? Or- you're probably fine, then. You can deal with Shadows, and I- fuck. I'm sorry, Hikaru-san."

Yuuki, after spotting the exit grunts as he begins to move over towards it. He stops as he hears her offer, and then her apology and he looks back towards her with a blank stare for a second or two before he offers a tired lopsided grin towards her. "I don't see why you're apologizing, I'm just tired is all.." he says, grunting for a moment before he frowns once shadows are brought up. "Then again, they'll definitely be a problem..." he thinks aloud, tilting his head back for a moment to stare upwards towards the ceiling as he silently mouths out things to himself. Pursing his lips, he furrows his brows before sighing, letting out a yawn as his left hand come over to rub his eyes before he finishes, "I guess I'll just wait it out instead. After all, it's a bad idea to go out there alone." he yet again thinks aloud before sighing, his right hand coming over to scratch his head through hair.

Akemi breathes more easily. "Okay, okay. Where do you live, by the way, Hikaru-san? You make it seem pretty far away."

Yuuki Hikaru blinks, looking back over towards Akemi as he tilts his head over to the side with a blink. "Kai didn't tell you?" he asks with slight confusion before he grunts, looking back over towards the exit again. Shrugging, he simply says "Inaba.", as if he hadn't had any qualms with how far away it was to begin with.

"Inaba?" Akemi said with conciderable surprise. "I've heard some weird things about Inaba- probably more things than it has inhabitants. Apparently there's a murderer running about- a friend of mine's relative got, you know. Know anything about it? He seemed pretty distraught, you understand." Old habits returning, she pulls out the notebook and pencil. "Anything at all?"

Yuuki quirks a brow as he looks back over towards Akemi. Tilting his head over to the riht, his eyes drift off over along one of the walls of the lab before he looks back over to Akemi, "All I honestly know is that people are dying, not much beyond that. I haven't exactly looked into it, but Kai may know something about it. He's more adventurous than me, after all." he says with a shrug, blinking for a moment as he taps his right foot on the floor quietly.

"That, uh, that makes sense. Wishful thinking, I suppose," Akemi says. "There can't be much more left of this, can there be? The Hour, I mean."

Yuuki Hikaru shrugs his shoulders, bringing his right hand over infront of himself as his left index finger taps a watch that has ceased to function. "It's not like I can really tell. But if I were to guess, from my last experience, it may not be too long by now." he says for a moment, looking over towards the exit sign before he frowns, "Maybe."

Akemi Ohashi sighs. "Thanks for your help, Hikaru-san. I regret that I am as of yet unable to find a method of invocation that isn't... this. There exist alternate avenues of inquiry, of course, but- it doesn't matter. Thanks for taking the risk," Akemi says. Just as she finishes, colors return to normal, lights snap on, and coffins become people again. The Dark Hour ends. "Oh, I think that's our cue!" she continues, turning to the exit. "Coming?"

Yuuki glances around, watching as he sees a significant less amount of green and he looks up to the lights that flick back on suddenly. Squinting, he stares at one of them for a moment and looks to the people that are around him once more, looking back over towards Akemi he stares for a second before grinning and offering a nod, turning towards her and walking after her, "Yeah, I'm coming, Ohashi-san."