infinite_reflection | A couple of days after hanging out with Miho...

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A couple of days after hanging out with Miho...

"Under the weather" was at once an accurate and inaccurate way for Ren to describe herself. She had much less energy than usual, but being stubborn as ever, she refused to let it show. She attended practice even after hurting her ankle, and grumbled endlessly when the team captain forced her to sit out for her own safety. Her volunteering jobs had been stressful as well, and she found herself with less work to do and less people to help. For any other teenager this would have been a good thing, but for Ren, it was a sign that she wasn't needed.

And then the kitchen knife slipped from her hand while preparing her lunch that morning. Ren idly scratched around the bandaid on her finger during class, chewing on the inside of her cheek. For anyone who knew her well, they could tell she didn't look like herself.

... Not to mention the mirrors were driving her up the wall.

Just as the bell rang to signal the end of the day's last class, the sound stretched and echoed in Ren's head and her mind seemed to blank out. She sat there, immobile, for a good number of minutes, whilst everyone around her was already packing up.

"Hey, Miura, are you okay? You look kinda pale."

"Hm... yeah, maybe you should go to the infirmary. Or get someone to help you walk home..."

"Miura? Hey, Miura, are you listening?"

Abruptly, the girl stood from her seat, surprising those standing around her desk. Without gathering her things or even uttering a word, she turned and exited the classroom, staring blankly and dragging her feet.

She heard whispers all around her... or inside her? But she couldn't actively listen to them. She was barely conscious and it was like she didn't find anything strange about walking to an empty girls' bathroom. Once there, she turned to face the mirror, empty gaze setting on the shifting surface.

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Her voice did sound like she was getting closer, and with her ankle in this state, it would only be a matter of time before the girl would catch up. Ren continued until she arrived at a dirty, heavy-looking door that seemed to have been left ajar. She could definitely feel a presence beyond it, and she was certain it was whatever she was chasing down, just waiting for her. She bit her lip. Go inside, or wait for the girl?

She looked at her feet and saw that the ground was completely covered in unthawed soil, and what looked like plants that had tried to sprout out but were frozen before they could get far.

"I'm at a door," she called out, but before she could add anything else, a sighing voice came from beyond the door, just above a mumble.

It doesn't matter... she can't help you anyway. You don't even want her to.

That... that was her own voice...

Seiya nearly tripped over some icy roots, the ground now gradually turning into nothing but dirt. Rolling her mirror in her palm, she felt she was close. Stopping at the end of the hallway, she could see Ren not too far ahead.

"Hey! I'm here!"

Ren was almost a little startled by Seiya's arrival and she managed to tear her gaze away from the door to look at her. "O-oh, hey." Damn, why did she have to get someone involved into this? "Sorry you had to come in here... wherever this is." She gave her surroundings a confused, almost irritated look. It was hard to turn around to face her completely, what with her injured ankle forcing her to lean on the wall.

Ren looked back at the door. "... There's someone in there. Probably whatever pulled me in here."

Seiya watched Ren, taking a few hesitant steps forward. Judging by how she'd first reacted, Seiya could guess this girl was feeling roughly the same.

"Come towards me. I can get you out." She stared at the door, terrified to know what was behind it.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek unsurely. She was pretty sure they had cornered the thing she was chasing, so the idea of backing down and leaving kind of left a bad taste in her mouth... but she also didn't want to risk the girl's safety, nor did she want to have to rely on her too much.

As she opened her mouth to speak, however, the door creaked open with a loud whine. The room was roughly the size of a classroom and the floor looked like a ploughed field that froze over. Scratches, indents and smears of dirt covered the walls, like a wild animal had gone on a frenzy inside. At the end of the room stood a single bathroom stall with its door unhinged, covered in smeared graffiti. A girl perched on the toilet with her knees to her chest, almost like she had taken refuge in the stall to cry.

The girl slowly raised her head to look at them - it was Ren's reflection, dirty, bruised, with her clothes in tatters, and her eyes shining gold. She sighed. "It's no use... you can't help me."

Ren stared, mouth agape. "What the hell...?"

Shit, it looked like the wheel had already begun to spin. Seiya was on guard, taking a defensive position instinctively. "Um..." She didn't know her name. "You should really come with me!"

It was most likely useless, but she had to try.

Before they could react, however, there was a rumble much like an earthquake, forcing the two girls to stumble inside the room. The door swung shut behind them with a loud clang. Losing her balance with her injured ankle, Ren fell on the ground, scraping her knees and palms against the frozen ground.

The reflection in the stall peered at them both through tired, melancholic eyes, heaving another sigh as her gaze fixed itself on Seiya. "How do you expect to help someone who can't even help herself...?" Her gaze then shifted to Ren, who was wincing as she picked herself up the ground. "Useless... after all your reassuring and bragging, you can't even hold your promises. You're so unreliable..." She unfolded her legs, setting her feet on the floor as she stood, but didn't exit the stall. Her shoulders were slumped and her head hung low, like she was defeated. "When people need you the most, you turn out to be incapable of doing anything worthwhile. Why do you even bother...?"

Ren clenched her fists. What... what was she even talking about?! "Yeah right, like you know anything! Who the hell do you think you are?!"

The reflection gave her a dull, half-lidded stare. "You can't even tell? I'm you."

"We really should--" Too late, the doors were shut. Seiya pulled out her compact, rolling it in her palm. Not this again. It seemed that there was a pattern with all this, and Seiya knew where it was headed.

"Don't listen to it."

"What?" It almost came out as a huff as Ren looked at Seiya, confused. Did she know about this stuff? She warily looked at the reflection again.

"Yes, don't listen to me, just as you always do. You never listen to me. Not when you're sick, tired, or hurt... you keep wanting to help people more and more because to you, people can't take care of themselves. Not without you, right?... Yet you can't even help yourself." She paused to heave a long, drawn-out sigh. "And then you wind up like this, with the world's weight on your shoulders." She vaguely gestured to herself, as though she was too exhausted to move much more than that.

Ren chewed on her lip. There had to be some kind of trick. There was no way she was telling the truth... her, helpless? Y-yeah right... She averted her gaze, instead looking down at the ground between herself and Seiya. "You might as well stop talking, because I'm not gonna listen."

"Come on." Her hands rose - it was like she was a mime in an invisible cage, yet it really looked as though her hands had set on something. "Why not just admit it to yourself already? Do us both a favor... you don't want to drag that girl into this, do you?"

"Shut up!"

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Seiya gritted her teeth, stepping closer to Ren. Perhaps she could attempt to comfort her. The situation was dangerous, and to aggravate the girl would probably make her shadow that much more volatile.

"I'm coming closer, okay? Talk to me. Just stay with me. What's your name?" Brow furrowed, she took little steps forward.

Ren licked her lips, unsure of where to look, but she acknowledged Seiya drawing closer. "I'm..."

"Miura Ren, second year," the other interrupted. "16 years old, baseball club. Born August 1st, living with a brother and grandmother... Need anything else?"

She looked at her, bewildered and angry.

"How do I know?" she asked for her, not even needing to look at her expression. "I told you already... I'm you."

"Cut the crap already!" Ren yelled, her stance becoming more aggressive. "For the last time... you're not me!"

The girl in the stall stared and it seemed as though the golden hue of her eyes flashed for a moment. Slowly, she stepped out of the stall, as though her invisible prison had vanished. With her hands twitching as they clutched her stomach, black mist began to form and accumulate around her. "Figures... you're beyond help."

The cloud of black mist exploded forward; the wave blasted Ren backwards, against the wall and onto the ground. As the mist cleared, where the reflection stood earlier was now a large ox buried waist-deep in the ground, with the reflection herself gored through the stomach and hanging from its horn. The ox bellowed, digging its hooves violently into the frozen ground, and the girl looked at Seiya with dull eyes.

"I am a Shadow... the true self."

"Miura-san It's--!!" Seiya grunted, the blast causing her to hit the ground hard. Wincing, a sharp pain shot through her already bruised side. In but an instant the shadow had transformed into some kind of gruesome beast. Watching as it locked eyes with her, Seiya's hands shook as she fumbled with the mirror.

"Miura-san, it's lying!" Or rather, she hoped it was. At this point, Seiya wasn't even sure if Ren was alright.

Ren had crumpled to the ground after the impact. If she was still conscious, she was too dazed to react. The Shadow, on the other hand, was far from dazed; she lifted her hand, uncovering the ox's left eye; the eye flashed wildly and the beast bellowed, summoning a rock spike to shoot up from the ground under Seiya's feet.

Rolling quickly to the side, the spike grazed her side, blood dampening her shirt. Seiya growled, throwing her mirror down on the ground. "PERSONA!"

In a flash of glorious light, Hlin emerged from the glass, eyes opening wide. She glared at the shadow, hand s outstretched. Quickly aiming at Shadow Ren, Hlin cast Garu, a gust of wind picking up and slamming towards the creature.

The gust of wind hit the Shadow in full blast; the ox thrashed its head around and stomped its hooves in pain and the girl tried to stabilize herself on the beast's horn, cringing as she was tossed to and fro. The spell seemed to have been especially effective... maybe just a few more...

The ox's free horn grew in length and it tossed its head, aiming to slam Seiya with it.

Hlin dove in the way of the blow, yet Seiya was still hit, falling to her knees with a groan. Wincing, she glanced to Ren, lip quivering. "Miura-san... you can do this..."

Trying to crawl closer to her classmate, Seiya reached out for her, "Maybe... maybe you have to just... accept these kind of things..."

Casting garu once more, Hlin tried her best to protected the two as they talked.

Ren managed to push herself up on her hands and hold her head, trying to shake out the dizziness. She heard Seiya's words, but was still too disoriented to respond immediately; instead, she looked up at her, then at the fight. The ox bellowed again as it was hit by the spell. At that point, it looked like it was severely weakened, but even more enraged. The Shadow on its horn held her face, groaning and whimpering in pain. With its eye uncovered, the ox once again cast Tera, this time in between the two girls and dangerously close to Seiya.

Ren pulled herself to a sitting position, a hand still holding her head. She let everything sink in... the Shadow... her words... the true self? Acceptance...?

As the ground beneath her shot up, Seiya flew back a few more feet from Ren. Hlin could only take so much of the blow, looking disappointed in herself.

Half of her compact still in tact, Seiya slid it across the space between them, watching it slide to a stop beside Ren.

"Maybe it's.. it's just time." She clutched her side, hoping to stop herself from losing too much blood.

She watched as the compact slid to her and hesitantly picked it up. She looked at herself in the reflection... thoughts surged through her mind. She steeled herself, pulling herself to her feet with some difficulty. "Alright, that's enough."

The Shadow stopped and calmed down as Ren limped towards it. She stopped in front of it, prompting the Shadow to revert into its initial form as black mist exuded from it and disappeared.

"... I admit it. I haven't been honest with myself, or a lot of people, either," she said, looking at her feet. "I lack faith in people. I overestimate myself, and I get convinced that I have to help them with everything, otherwise they won't be able to accomplish anything on their own... so when they prove me wrong, I take it the wrong way." She looked into the compact in her hand. "Then I start feeling like I'm not good enough, so I try to make up for it by making everyone else's problems my own, and then I just... get overwhelmed."

The Shadow stood perfectly still, listening to Ren's words.

She looked up at her Shadow and locked their gazes. "I'm sorry. I need to learn how to help myself first of all, don't I? Well... maybe this is the first step." She raised her free hand and offered it to the Shadow, along with a smile. "You're a part of me. I can recognize that now. What do you say we work together on improving ourself?"

Smiling faintly, the Shadow took Ren's hand and shook it. In a gentle glow of light, she dissolved and transformed into a tall, masked woman with hair made of leaves and holding a long branch, driving a plough. She faded into the form of a card, which then drifted down into Ren's open hand - bearing the symbol of a maiden and a lion.

"Gefjon..." she mumbled, the name echoing in her mind. A... Persona. The word felt right.

Watching as Ren stepped forward, Seiya gritted her teeth. It was partially a reaction to the pain, yet also a side of hesitant anticipation. She wasn't quite sure if Hlin could get between them in time. It seemed that it wasn't needed, as the girl began to speak to her shadow. As the conversation ended, Seiya watched Ren receive her persona.

So this is what it looked like to Gregory and Miho back in the elevator. Hlin dissolved into a thin mist, returning to her place in Seiya's psyche. "Miura-san... are you okay?" Attempting to stand, Seiya shook. Yes, a visit to the hospital was definitely needed after all this.

"Yeah..." As she answered, realization hit her, and she spun around, rushing to Seiya as quickly as her ankle would let her. "Oh crap, what about you? We need to get you out of here, stat!" And she was already throwing Seiya's arm over her shoulders and wrapping her own around her waist to support her, despite the sorry state of her ankle. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, senpai..."

... Wait. How WERE they supposed to get out?

"I'm just glad you're okay, Miura-san." Seiya leaned on her, panting softly as she lost more blood. "The exit's that way." Pointing, she tried to hobble forward.

"I've never... you did good, okay?"

Ren looked a little sheepish. The door had outright vanished, so they were free to exit the room; the soil seemed to thaw, as well, and the small sprouts were set free from their icy prisons. She favored her uninjured foot, hoping Seiya could at least provide some weight for the other side.

"I didn't think those rumors would turn out to be true... and like this, of all things," she rasped, clearing her throat as she turned a corner. Fortunately any other Shadow seemed to have vacated the premises. "I'm still really confused, and we'll have to talk about it later, but..." Later, as in after they were both out and bandaged up. "Is... does anyone else know about this?... It's going to look suspicious when we come out and people find us all beaten up."

Seiya supported her new friend as best as she could, taking her time as they walked. "G-kun and Miho-chan-- unghhh" Pausing, she grunted in pain. "They came with me before..."

They were almost home free now, thank God.

She had heard a mention of that G person before, but Miho? "Mippon knows-?" That was a bit of a shock... but then again, that could explain why she mentioned the rumor the other day. Ren felt a little bad for blowing her off about believing it, now.

"Is this it?" They arrived at what looked like a replica of the girls' bathroom, complete with the large mirror above the sink counter.

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