2023-09-02: Self, Actually
- Cast: Asciel Colette, Yuta Hibiki
- Where: Tsutsujidai - Kamesan Park
- Date: U.C. 0097 09 02
- Summary: To the vestige of a hero who lost the star he never asked for, arrives the husk who made herself into a star so as to answer everything. Of course they have so much to learn from each other.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
<Operation (Track Gridman) Procedure 1!>
Asciel's little birds were scarce and few regarding Tsutsujidai and the kaiju incidents Gridman dealt with. (Turns out a slow-burning conspiracy network doesn't have a lot of ins on a colony that only emerged into reality a few months ago!) But she'd heard vaguely that something called a Hyper Devil was vanquished, and figured it was time to re-assess her grievances with the Giant of Light.
First step! This is the easy one, the kind of process that'd be nightmarish to a human but is almost beneath consideration for a city management AI. Full analysis on accessed CCTV archives on cities where Gridman appeared.
Then, a 7 day before/after population movement breakdown, using the best algorithms in the business to filter out ordinary citizens doing ordinary things. Then the tricky part. A search for oddities amidst the cleared out noise preceding and following Gridman's appearances. Is he projected from some device? Connected to some installed antenna? Asciel's prepared to widen her scope to 4 months before/after - but it turns out to not be too hard. A red haired teenager who, immediately before each Gridman appearance, makes a strange posture in an isolated-enough place, and vanishes in a burst of light. Four suspicious suited individuals carting a pitiful looking outdated monitor around very shortly before each incident. Almost too easy!
<Operation (Track Gridman) Procedure 2!>
Thankfully, Asciel had the sense to deposit a few little listening devices and drones during her visit to Tsutsujidai, shortly after it had arrived into reality, and while she's left them largely inert and hidden, they're more than capable of emerging from their nests in the guise of birds, taking a lonely flight to circle around town. There's a circuitous route taken to where she spies a matching figure walking into an apartment - after all, those same 4 suited figures seem to be lurking around, so she's gotta just narrowly escape their notice! All as Asciel merrily strolls to where she's triangulated the mysterious boy with an obvious connection to Gridman.
At the front of the door, a simple sign awaits her.
-Yuta Hibiki's Residence-
-I have no more connection to Gridman.-
"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" Asciel puffs as she knocks in a cheery, rhythmic little pattern in tune with one of her favorite songs, but with the kind of force and authority usually reserved for extremely determined law enforcement. ...Only then does she remember that, right, these are people with rather gentler natures than Asciel was prepared for, and takes it down a few octaves. The rustling of a paper bag joins the chorus. "...People do eat food around here, right? I'd hope the convenience stores aren't just decorative. I brought some! Which I hope are favorable. So do open up~"
<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.
Yuta Hibiki lays on the floor, where he has been for the past near-hour. There's just enough space for him to splay his arms and legs out. Staring up at the ceiling, he can almost trick himself into seeing shapes in the formless pattern of the paint.
Going back to school has been rough. Like Akane said, everyone's been really supportive, but that in itself is kinda uncomfortable. Yuta just wants things to go back to normal. It doesn't really seem possible at this point. With school worries and nearly two years of Gridman's unsorted memories floating in his mind, it's tough to really relax. Yuta's mind feels loud all the time. He should really be doing homework, but... He just wound up down here on the floor somehow.
An audible "ack!" greets Asciel's knock, the intensity of it startling Yuta out of his blank-faced musings. He scrambles to his feet -- socks slipping on the carpet. Today, (again) he's stayed in his pjs, basketball shorts and a very faded t-shirt. Judging by the sound of that knock, there's no time to change. So embarrassing!
Yuta unlocks the door as Asciel begins to speak. Huh? A visitor who brought food? It's not Renais again, right? The voice is vaguely familiar, but Yuta can't place it. Gridman's memories are too foggy.
The door cracks open. Yuta peeks out, his brilliantly blue eyes (a notable change, perhaps, from Asciel's information -- the red-head who vanished into the computer had yellow eyes) wary.
"Uh, hello..." Yuta definitely doesn't know this person. After an awkward pause, he offers: "I'm not sure you have the right place, ma'am, but I'm happy to give you directions directions if you need them. I've got a phone you can use..."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
In all reality, if pressed on an obvious important thing like 'discrepancy in eye color on a subject', you'd probably get a 'oh please, humans change eye color all the time' out of Asciel. Technically she'd be right! Not for the right reason.
All nearly eight feet of Asciel looms...as probably a bit of a sensory shock, given her gaudy and eye-popping mode of dress here in town. Two-layered bikini in black and magenta, a bright day-glo yellow jacket of some glossy material over that, a stiff-pleated sky blue skirt with a big elaborate phone case strapped to one side and an an...that's straight up a sword of some sort she has on the other hip. Right? The sheath for it looks so...so...so much like some kind of Tarabaman henshin toy, though. But the grip poking out of it is unreasonably metallic and high quality! (well okay, there's probably collectors toys that go all in on the gokin)
"...Well, don't you look like a mess," Asciel murmurs and tips forward just a little, the sunset in her left eye blazing bright as she peers the disheveled teenager up and down. Foisting the bag in Yuta's hands, he'll finds that it, obviously...doesn't have a special dog? It's mostly just protein bars and sports drinks with the occasional ramen cup and chocolate bar.
Then she foists herself into Yuta's apartment to take a look around, the top of her head audibly bonking on the doorframe with eerily little reactivity. "...So like. ...well. Uhm. Alright, so the sign out front, it's throwing me for a loop. I was all prepared to ask so much about how the ~Giant of Light~ is faring these days, how well the decisions to arraign the world's destiny have been going, and trying to figure out just what made him tick."
Pivoting on one heel, Asciel parks herself on the back of a small sofa, her chin in both hands. "...If that sign's a lie, it doesn't make sense to put out there to begin with. ...Thus, I'm led to assume that the world's heroes are losing their stamina, that they're cracking from the strain. Consider yourself lucky, then, that you can choose to retire so easily!~ But consider this a little wake-up call that more people are gonna show up like me who actually will want you to do something for them~~~"
She's practically glowing from the sheer confidence of all the very big assumptions she's making...!
<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.
Yuta immediately tries to close the door.
Unfortunately, Asciel is much faster -- inviting herself in and offering the startled young man a bag of food. Too polite (or perhaps, too shell-shocked) to protest, he closes the door behind her and glances into the bag. This is... kind of a random assortment. Well, it's not like Yuta dislikes any of it.
"T--thanks, um--" Yuta pauses with a wince as Asciel bonks her head. "Sorry about that, are you alright..?"
Asciel doesn't react, so... she must be alright. Right as Yuta works up his courage to ask the giant woman who she even is, she mentions the Giant of Light, and Yuta shrinks back into himself.
After placing the bag of food down on the kitchen table, just to the other side of the couch Asciel perches on, Yuta walks around and sits on the opposite end. It's far enough away to be polite and cautious both. Yuta is trying very hard not to judge Asciel's choice in dress and... accessory (is that a sword?), but it definitely has him on-edge.
Not to mention that she's eight feet tall. That's not normal.
"Well, um." Yuta looks away. The room is slightly cluttered -- homework is spread out on the kitchen table, dishes wait in the sink, a stack of movies are piled in front of the TV -- but it's clean, and nice enough. "...can I offer you any refreshments, ma'am..? I'm sorry you've come all this way for... someone who isn't here."
Yuta looks supremely uncomfortable. He has absolutely no idea how to handle Asciel. "The sign is the truth. You can see for yourself." Yuta holds up his left arm -- it's bare, though he has a pretty significant set of tan lines around his wrist.
He doesn't offer any meaning to this gesture, though he looks at Asciel as if this should answer all her questions. Perhaps it will, depending on her level of surveillance detail.
"The heroes of this world--!" He begins the sentence loudly, but soon clears his throat, quieting down. "...they're not cracking or giving up. A--and I'm --"
Yuta goes a little pale as Asciel finishes her sentence. Slowly, he reaches for his phone resting on the back of the couch, equally placed between them.
"...I'm not... I don't have anything to offer you. I'm just a normal high school kid. I always have been. All that stuff -- it wasn't me."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"Ah right, I was probably so busy during our previous meetings that I never got around to a proper introduction." A flash of a peace sign over her left eye, an emission of a sparkling star from its LED surface. "Asciel Colette, a passing goddess of possibility, answering the calls deep within your heart! It's my duty to seek out others that embody that same potential in this world, and appraise their capabilities. Hmhm. Me and...Gridman, came to blows a few times. After all, I spend a lot of time trying to save a world in dire need of saving, but everyone seems to have different opinions on how you go about that~"
Probably the most oppressively bright thing Asciel can even cook up to say towards a clearly existentially worried Yuta. The offer of Yuta's own refreshments is met with Asciel gently shaking her head and rooting around in her purse for a bottle of the same electrolyte solution she had in Yuta's bag, sipping it once as though by formality, to prove that she is needless.
...Something about the way Yuta says exactly that hits the right nerve buried in Asciel. "Wasn't 'you', you say. Aren't you in luck~ I know quite a bit about exactly that." A wide smile crosses the towering streamer's lips. "...A fissure between ephemeral dreams and the cold nature of reality. The things 'you' needed to accomplish are not compatible with what you find yourself capable of now."
The bottom of Asciel's shoe trails a little circle at the bottom of Yuta's couch, eyes flitting to the telling sign of the strange wrist-mounted device's removal. To her - she understands it. That something has been given up, and in the process, a self has been given up. That's how she chooses to assess that invisible dilemma.
"...ne, you're able to make 'you' whatever you wish. Tell me. I can hear the reticence in your voice, and it's bitterly familiar. So much so that I haaaate when humans are stuck sounding like that. It's so not a good look for your adorable squishy selves! So tell me aaaaaaall about the divide between you, who insists you are normal and incapable of anything, who is surrounded by the signs of struggle - and the you who was the hero of dreams not too long ago. Because in your shoes, what I did-"
"Was just decide I was that hero anyway, no matter if it was 'true' or not~"
<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.
"I don't really remember..." Yuta mutters, but he can't help but smile a little at Asciel's introduction. The little star is honestly a nice touch, it's really cute. It seems Yuta and Gridman alike both enjoy idols -- though Yuta pushes that thought away immediately.
"It's nice to meet you, Asciel, um. Sorry about the fighting." Yuta looks embarrassed. "My name is Yuta Hibiki. I guess you knew that. From the sign." Should he shake her hand? He thinks about it for a moment, then extends his hand. It's polite, right?
Though Asciel's introduction is a bit overwhelming, it's still really cool... Yuta wishes he could introduce himself with that level of confidence. A goddess, huh? With all the weird people Gridman met, Yuta can't even be sure if that's an exaggeration or not. He accepts it at face value, mostly.
After all, there used to be a goddess in Yuta's class.
"So you're here to, uh, appraise my capability?" Yuta asks, shifting awkwardly. "I'm not really good at anything. Sorry."
Asciel takes a drink. Yuta nods to her politely. Maybe he should've grabbed himself a drink, too. Oh well, it'd be weird to get up now.
Yuta snatches his phone, holding it in his lap as if it would be any sort of protection against the enormous lady in his apartment. If worst comes to worst, he can call those suit guys (the Neon Gensis Junior High Students, his brain says, but Yuta pointedly ignores it).
Blue eyes nervously dart between Yuta's phone and Asciel's face. "Yeah. Wasn't me." Her reaction is interesting, though. While Asciel isn't threatening him, Yuta is smart enough to catch the hint of an 'edge' to her words. She's not as benevolent as she pretends to be, is she? Especially if she's fought with Gridman before.
"I don't have anything to accomplish besides graduating high school, going to some college, and getting a job somewhere." Yuta mutters. "I've just got to get my grades up. Besides, I can't do any of that fighting stuff."
"I don't know what you're talking about." He insists, squeezing his eyes shut. Adorable and squishy? Yuta can't even muster the courage to be upset about being called 'squishy'. "I wasn't him. He just took my body over for nearly two years. I was asleep. Everyone around me changed, and got so strong. Now I'm back, and I can tell -- they wish he was still here!"
Yuta's eyes fly open. He's surprised with himself, with the words that made it out of his mouth. Well, if he's come this far...
Making eye contact with Asciel is too hard. Yuta looks down at his phone, instead, looking at his reflection in the lightless screen.
"I'm not a hero. I'm just what's left after one went home." Yuta grits his teeth, flipping his phone over. "I was never a real person to begin with. When everyone else in Tsutsujidai became 'real', I was asleep. I got left behind. I don't even belong here anymore."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
A light in Asciel's left eye that gleams her glasses, that permanent wink brilliant and intoxicated. Story time? It's indeed time to wring a story from this fretful teenager. A few short giggles, as the boy seems surprised by his own willingness to divulge that situation to a near-stranger.
"...hmhmhm. That's deceptively important. From what I heard, quite the grand climax happened here in humble old Tsutsujidai. A titan of light vanquishing a devil of the stars - and then leaving you, is what I'm hearing. A grand purpose, one that overruled everything about you, came and went."
Asciel cants her head towards an odd direction - like she's seen something off in the distance, but all she seems to be fixed on is a picture on Yuta's wall.
>...I wonder. The 'me' that is my purpose has changed everything quite a lot. Is that the root of it? Those odd feelings of my own strain at what I've become...
"You sound dissatisfied about it, Yuta," Asciel hums, snapping her head back and stepping forwards from her couch-straining perch, one hand on her hip. (the one that has her phone on it! not the sword!) "Hehe. The way I see it then, you have two options if you want to move forward from the little trench you're in. By utter serendipity, I'm willing to teach you the first one, and that'd be~"
One hand outstretched to Asciel's side, as though reaching for something intangible. "To take everything you're feeling, and understand it for what it is. That for whatever reason, a higher purpose landed inside you, and now, all the sudden, everyone you know expects you to uphold it. They see you as a being who lives for this purpose, and the object left behind as worthless. It burns, I can tell. The fire's suppressed, but oh, have I ever felt it. The coldness of being adrift, and the exceptionally hard work I did to seize the star that descended upon me one day. You have the upper hand, really. You know that the 'you' that was Gridman was what people wanted. You've felt the taste of seizing the sunrise. But right when it's lost, slipped from your grasp irreversibly, by such fortune...you've met me, who can tell you exactly how to reclaim it. Who can guide you along the path of tears and pain and ecstasy and euphoria and dismay and isolation and connection that lies along becoming something by your choosing.~"
The prospect has oh so excited Asciel. Is it any surprise? It is in her very nature to draw others in, to get almost breathless at what she can finally share with another. Right up until the other half of that nature emerges. The one she views as inevitable - as her other hand extends, but in a more flippant, palm-up, shrugging move.
"Or you can just forget it. Forget all this nonsense. Move somewhere far from this extraordinary city. The world's a big place for a human to find themselves in. It's when they try to make it small enough to move to their liking that they lose it all. Gridman can just be a dream that infected you, but really...you're not special for that. Whenever a hero rises, everyone imagines they can become like that, becomes fixated on it for a while. I've heard enough pleas just like yours, in some nature, to know that you're not even exceptional to feel like you've lost time, that people cared about something you're not. Take one deep breath of Tsutsujidai, then breath it out for good, and take a shuttle to wherever you throw a dart towards on a map. That's the path I can't help you on, because that is the path I intend to save you, and every other person on. If you never wanna see me again outside of from a very, very far distance, then that's just the choice for you~"
...it probably doesn't help that Asciel did not take Yuta's extended hand. It's a courtesy that's somewhat outside her instinct.
<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.
Yuta blushes as Asciel laughs, looking away in embarrassment. How stupid that all must've sounded. Why does he ever open his mouth? Asciel does not take Yuta up on his handshake, and the young man awkwardly lowers his hand back to his lap.
"That's what I heard too." Yuta mutters. "Then he fixed up the whole place and left. Pretty amazing..."
The picture Asciel's gaze lands on shows Yuta himself with an older man and woman. Light shines down on the frame, glaring off the glass in a way that obscures the faces of the two adults.
Asciel steps forward, and Yuta glances back to her, face still red with humiliation. "Options? Like what?"
And no sooner has he asked does Asciel illuminate him. She seems to do so gleefully -- in the back of his mind, Yuta wonders if she rehearsed this whole presentation. It's really sharp. Maybe part of being a 'goddess' is good showmanship? Akane was always good at that stuff too...
Blue eyes are wary as Asciel speaks. Yuta is quiet, listening to her entire speech before he speaks up again, though he does look increasingly stricken at her words. It's as though they strike him, and Yuta can't even lie to himself enough to tell Asciel she's wrong. He does feel adrift, lost, isolated.
Asciel's excitement, her all-consuming fervor, is familiar, somehow. Memories brush against Yuta's awareness. The color green, somehow, feels present. Yuta shakes his head. It's impossible to focus with Gridman's memories demanding attention.
Another option is offered, and Yuta hates this one. It's as though Asciel's words strike him, unearthing fears he didn't know he had. Akane, Rikka, even Utsumi -- they've all become heroes. They've all done amazing things, while Yuta just slept. He doesn't want to just fade into the background while they go on to more incredible things. Yuta can't handle the thought of the rest of his life going by as if he was still asleep.
Hands clench into fists. Yuta's heart beats fast. No. He can't let that happen.
"..." Yuta opens his mouth, though he hesitates before he makes a sound. "...what do I have to do for the first path?"
He's suspicious, but there's desperation in his expression.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
-A slight shift in Asciel's posture. Honestly, Asciel had thought she made that second option sound equally appealing. It's what she thinks just about every human should find relieving, comforting a potential. They can just leave - if they have the freedom! If they find themselves alone where they are, what even is the loneliness of an uncertain new beginning that sings to you?
But alas.
"Pff. Ahahahaha.~ You do know it was intentional that I put more words of struggle and hardship when describing that path than I did uplifting ones. You are aware that anything I say is something of a violation of my promise to be the sole protector of humans from every last difficulty."
A dangerous little narrowing in Asciel's eyes. The back of her hand is held just up to her mouth. "...and yet, that tone in your voice. Mm. I remember asking that exact same question."
Asciel's first step forward is heavy enough that it makes the floor thrum. "First~ Yell as loud as you can what you want to change in the world. Find something you can't stand when you look out the window. Find something you HAVE to change."
"Second~ Take a good, long look at exactly what is different between the you who exists right now, and the one who could change it. I'll bet the easiest one is that you're not strong enough. But that's so malleable in this world. Why, if you tugged on the right ears, there's organizations in this world teeming with their own fake gods just begging for a desperate person with delusions of heroism in their heart."
Asciel's third step gets her right in Yuta's personal space - and that gloved hand brazenly clasps his chin. "Third. ...Understand that the world will attempt to deny you. Why, it may even try to torture you. To exploit you. Becoming greater than yourself is not something given to you, as much as there are so many voices screaming that they want someone to take that wish. Trust the wrong people, and you will live through a hell you cannot imagine. Walking this path is to be just on the border of despair, and to push through it with a determination to destroy anything that gets in your way."
Her grip pulls Yuta's head downwards, towards his own body. "Fourth~ Amidst all that. With all the pain of transformation, with all the risk of it being all for nothing- you must never - ever - ever give up. Even if it makes more 'sense' to give up. When that happens - as SOON as it happens - you change your approach to one that forbids giving up. You have to really, really hate the you that is this pitiful beyond anything else - to recognize that staying this way, no matter how inevitable, is not on the table."
The heat emanating from Asciel, the pushy and imposing strength, the loudness and boisterousness. She really has, somehow, become a star, in every way that the word is aspirational and blazingly desolate at once. Mercifully, she lets Yuta go, this boy who once felt a star inhabit him. This lonely being she's suddenly seeing so much of herself in.
"...How's it sound? Horrible? Unimaginably hard? Do you want to curl up in a ball up about it? Or are you gonna start crying and screaming in defiance instead? Cause if it's the latter, I think you're closer than you believe you are to starting already."
<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.
"I've been asleep for nearly two years." Yuta turns his phone over in his hand, an anxious movement. "I wouldn't mind some difficult stuff... Something that I could actually do on my own, instead of just feeling bad about."
Yuta breathes out a nervous little laugh. "I've heard the whole 'protector of humanity' thing before. If you're anything like he is, then you're as human as anyone. You can't protect something without starting to love it. Without starting to become it."
It seems this concept, at least, Yuta is confident in. Those brilliant blue eyes look directly into Asciel's animated face. Of course, as she moves toward him, that confidence evaporates. Yuta nervously grips his phone.
Silent, again, as Asciel speaks, Yuta's eyes go wide. What he wants to change about the world? His mind races. There has to be something. All Yuta's desires since he woke up have been for himself. More time. More courage.
...he'll work on that one. Asciel is still talking.
Next: the difference between Yuta, and the version of Yuta who could change things. The thought makes him uncomfortable. He isn't sure he wants to change -- to become anyone else. As unhappy as he is like this, he only just got back. The thought of ceding control to anyone, even a superior version of himself... It makes him shudder.
"Wait... desperate..?" Yuta frowns. "Delusions? What-- ah!"
Asciel grabs his chin, and Yuta freezes, one hand still clenched around his phone, the other hovering somewhere between his lap and Asciel's arm. He isn't sure what to do. Yuta doesn't like this sudden closeness, this restraining grasp -- but for some reason, his voice can't seem to escape his throat. In the end, all Yuta can manage is a little gasp of breath.
She continues. Deny. Torture. Exploit. Yuta's expression grows fearful again. Has he already trusted the wrong person, letting Asciel into his home? Yuta's head is pulled downward, and he manages a little noise of protest. His other hand blindly tries to unlock his phone, but, alas, he types the passcode incorrectly.
Blue eyes squeeze closed. Yuta doesn't want to hate who he is. He doesn't. He knows what comes of those feelings -- that part of Gridman's memory is clear. But the idea of never giving up..?
That resonates. Maybe it's something Gridman left behind. Maybe it's something that was always there. But Yuta knows, at least, he can do that much. Determination settles across the young man's heart, a calming influence against the fluttering fear hiding there.
Once Asciel lets him go, Yuta reaches out, grabbing her wrist. It's gentle -- she could surely pull away with the barest effort -- but it's the most spirit Yuta has shown since she arrived.
"I'm not going to wait any more." Yuta says, through the fright in his expression. "If there's something to start, I'm ready now. I've already lost too much time."
...a moment later, Yuta releases Asciel's wrist (should she not have pulled away already). He looks startled. "S--sorry, I didn't mean--"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
-If only those emotions could genuinely reach Asciel, she would find them terrifying.
If only those emotions could truly enter that shell, she would find them amazing.
All the while Yuta struggles, the distance Asciel upholds is unmoving. The sunset in her eye fixed at the exact hour it dips below the horizon. The reversal, then, is what it takes to stir the idol. One blink, one little glance down at Yuta's grip. Ah, so weak and frail. The only other person who did this was easily five times stronger, yet still human. It bothers Asciel, definitely, to be held onto. Maybe even scares her. But at least she can hold the confidence that a grip like this isn't anything that can detain her.
"You've already started. After all, you're awake. Not just to yourself, but to the implications of what it now means to be you. For me, after all - my silent, slumbering oath of preserving humanity was met with the unrelenting wisdom that an unknown threat could kill millions under my care. For you, it was an ideal you never asked for wearing your face."
"Oh right, but more importantly, you clearly wanted to stabilize the connection, so let's help you with that.~" Shortly after Yuta scampers to unlock his phone, Asciel flippantly reaches forth to pull it out on his behalf - and with a quick look at those faint circles of fingerprints indicating the most typically pressed pattern - unlocks it herself, rapidly adding her own info to all of Yuta's contacts. With absolute brazen-ness too, she pipes in a confident and poised phone wallpaper art of- herself, drawn by one of her most talented fans, and sets it to his lock screen, before 'generously' turning it right back into his hands.
"You'll hear plenty from me. I'm a busy goddess, but I'm also very resourceful. Really, I have it perfectly within my own means to give you a spare mobile weapon, and that's the easiest way humans have to exert their will on the world. Oh, but- if I forget, do text me and plead for me to get around to it~ ...I think I've gotten what I wanted here. More than that. So~ I'll get out of your hair now."
A tousle of her ponytail later, and the storm that barged her way into Yuta's apartment has a spring in her step marching out - but she does turn her head rearwards, to make one last thing clear to Yuta.
"...The way I love is unsurvivable. The way I protect is by destroying threats, after all. Really, it's a biiiiig problem if those like ourselves get too close to people, but I'll save that for when you've 'become' a little more. After all, it's also not too late for you to back out. I guess I forgot to mention this path really doesn't make the whole 'love' thing work too well, if that's important to you. Silly me~"
The single courtesy Asciel does extend is closing the door behind herself.
<Pose Tracker> Yuta Hibiki has posed.
Yuta yelps a little "Hey!" as Asciel grabs his phone, left to do nothing but helplessly watch her do... something. Once it's given back, he looks at his new lock screen, utterly perplexed. It's a very nice drawing, but -- what just happened?
"A mobile--" Yuta's eyes go wide. Is that what he's asking for? Is that what he wants? Not being left behind... does that really mean he has to fight in a giant robot? If he really thinks about it... Akane, Rikka, and Utsumi all started to change into more amazing people after they started fighting, right? Yuta visibly swallows.
The goddess of possibility is leaving. It's taken Yuta a few moments to work through his thoughts, and by the time he's ready to respond, he's looking at her back. Yuta stands, unsure what to do, his phone still hanging in one hand.
"Asciel?" Yuta's voice is soft. He winces at the concept of not being a full being yet -- even if he accused himself of such earlier, it hurts to hear. And she has more to say, by way of a warning. "...I don't think that will be a problem."
Yuta looks down. He isn't sure what to say. "Thanks for the food." Is what he decides on, eventually, for parting words.
The door closes. Yuta looks at his phone again. Navigating to his contacts, he stares at the newly-added entry, before scrolling down to 'Battle Tracto Max'. His finger hovers over the 'call' button.
...
Yuta makes a frustrated noise, tapping out of the list and locking the phone. Sitting heavily on the couch, Yuta leans forward, covering his face with his hands.