Devilish Interrogation (Gin)

[Ayakura Alisa]

It's been a long time coming, but I finally got everything settled for my so-called transfer into the school. I was here on business, mostly, but of course only a select few people knew that. I only had a vague memory of what this Gin Takemoto might actually look like, so instead of trying to search frantically during a time when classes were already over (I struggled to keep myself awake because all of it was so boring; I had already gone through this shit once before). Instead, I opted to hang around outside the classroom and look around for people to bother. Hopefully the person I needed. Which was, of course, Gin. I don't think I was transferred to his class, but if I was, I definitely didn't see him at the time. Maybe he was absent? Hell if I knew.

Soon I saw a familiar fellow just walk past me, if I remembered correctly, it did look a little bit like what I remembered of it being Gin. I started following the figure. My footsteps were loud. "Is that you, Takemoto-san?" I called out to the figure walking ahead of me.

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin was having a usual school day- students didn't talk to him, teachers didn't ask him for answers- but when class ended, he was approached by a new student. It was an unusual occurrence, and it took the young shadow by surprise.

He turned to get a good look at the student and was shocked to find that he recognized her. Well, he recognized her somehow. She wasn't someone he would be able to point out in a crowd, but he could swear he knew her face from somewhere. He needed to find out who she is, and she had given him the perfect opportunity.

"Why, yes. I am Takemoto, but who are you? I'm afraid I can't place you," he said. He could swear he had seen her before... But where?

[Ayakura Alisa]

"Sorry to be alarming," I curtseyed and employed my high-schooler manners, though it had been almost a decade since I first entered high school. "I'm Alisa Ayakura. I'm new to this school. I'm not too worried about studies, though. Anyway, I was looking for you. I want to talk to you about some things. Is that okay with you?" I took a better look at Gin's human form. He seemed to look rather ordinary for his age, which suggested to me that the original human was probably just as ordinary of a person. This meant that Shadows could literally take on any single person's form. "But, I think we should talk somewhere more private. On that note, from your expression, I guess you know me from somewhere too, which probably makes this easier. Are you free to talk?"

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin looked around. The lunch break had just started, so he had plenty of time to spare. Besides, Alisa seemed to be nice and mean him no discernible harm. The shadow nodded before realizing that the girl had said something about him knowing her "making this easier." Unsure of what all that could entail, he decided to keep up his guard.

Still, they were in a public place for now. He doubted she would do anything; and besides, what exactly could she do? Gin may not be in his shadow form, but he doubted that Alisa would be able to exactly catch him by surprise. Thus, he made a gesture to let the girl know that he would follow and speak to her.

What's the worst that could happen?

[Ayakura Alisa]

I smiled and nodded back. "Excellent. Now, we'll just find... Uh... Oh, we can go this way." It was lunch break, and I led Gin to one of the corner desks at the school canteen, where there were much less people. It would be a lot easier to talk to him there where there would be no one potentially listening in (I doubt they cared anyway) and it would be much easier to hear them, because honestly, I'm sick and tired of high school gossip. I didn't need to go through that a second time.

I waited for Gin to settle down after I sat down at the table. "Sorry for bugging you on such a short notice. I'm glad I found you though. I wanted to talk to you about... Well, you, really. I know you're a Shadow. I've already seen your Shadow form once. I'd just like to ask you some questions, that's all. First of all, I just wanted to ask if you came from outside the city before this whole entire mess started. I'm trying to figure out more about your kind..."

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin smiled. So that's how he knew the girl. She was a User, or at least participated in the fights during the full moon. At least that answered his question.

He looked over at the other students, all grouped together with their friends. It was pitiful, how they refused to try to mingle with the other groups. With a sad sigh, the shadow looked at the girl who knew of his true existence.

"Yes, I'm a shadow. And yes, I did arrive before the lockdown. Right before it, actually. Strangely enough, though, the reasons were scarily human in origin. As for you wanting to know more about us, I have no issues with telling you as much as I can. After all, you humans are my ticket out of here."

[Ayakura Alisa]

Curious, curious. So he arrived before the lockdown, and it looks like he has his own reasons for cooperating with humans after all - he wants to leave the city. I see, I see. That's interesting. "So you have your own motive for cooperating with humans after all, it seemed obvious enough to me for a Shadow with your sentient capabilities to be powered by their own 'free will.' Anyway, I'm glad for your quick cooperation," I nodded solemnly before twiddling with my thumbs. "Alright, so you obviously display a much higher level of intelligence than your typical run of the mill Shadows. I guess, since you sided with us people, you're more than willing to discriminate friend and foe between other Shadows, right? There's some details I'm not clear about, actually. I want to know more about how you came to be, as a Shadow. I'm only certain it has something to do with the 'emotion' of a person. I encountered my own Shadow very recently, but I was able to conquer it with the help of some of my friends and colleagues. Since you've taken over someone yourself, I'm interested if you could flesh out some of the details I'm only fuzzy about."

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin sighed again. So the girl wanted to know how he came to be, and she thinks that he's had enough experiences with other shadows to openly call them "friend or foe." To be honest, he really didn't interact much with the other shadows. He usually avoided them if he could.

He looked at Alisa and started to answer. "I don't really view any of the other shadows as enemies. I've not really fought against any besides the ones at the full moons, and those don't really last long enough for me to really list them as enemies. I suppose I could come to have a viewpoint that makes the other shadows enemies, but I don't yet."

The shadow stretched before continuing. "As for details on my possession of the original Gin, I'm sorry. I don't really remember it all that clearly, just bits and pieces. If I can answer, I will. The emotion part seems right on the money, though. Gin was lonely and depressed, and your theory fits with how we run. You do know what we feed on, don't you?"

And, with a long sigh, the shadow brought his answers to a close, saying "It doesn't matter anyway. As for your questions, ask away. Although, I might ask a few questions myself."

[Ayakura Alisa]

It looks like Gin seemed to be able to distinguish between friend and foe properly then. He mentioned that he could have a viewpoint that makes other Shadows enemies, but he didn't have one yet. What a confusing individual. He mentioned that my hypothesis on emotions seemed to be correct. He asked me if I knew what we fed on. I nodded silently in response to that. Of course, they fed on the negative emotions of the people they usually tended to harass.

"I see. So you have got nothing to do with the lockdown, and in fact you would like to leave as well. Sigh. This isn't getting anywhere. I'm trying to figure out more about Shadows like yourself so I can figure out if you're connected to this whole mess or not, but it seems like all the productive information I could get out of this stems from I guess your origins."

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin looked over at the other students. He may not be able to help with Alisa's investigation, but perhaps he could get some information on Persona. He doubted he would be told everything he wanted to know, but he might as well start with the basics.

"Sorry about not being able to help much," the shadow said, "but maybe you can help me out. I know practically nothing about Persona. Any chance you'd be able to tell me anything about... Let's go with how you realized your power. What happened that was able to have you awaken to such an ability?" Gin honestly couldn't think of anything more basic that that, other than flat out asking what Persona were.

[Ayakura Alisa]

"Don't know why you care, but basically what happened was that I almost lost my right arm. Self-survival instinct, will to live, all that garbage. It's different for each person," I said, eyeing Gin. "I'm not sure what you plan to accomplish in doing research about Persona, but I'm not going to tell you very much if you have a malicious plan in mind that I haven't figured out yet." I warned Gin immediately that if he was planning some funny business with this knowledge, I wasn't going to spill the beans. I don't know why he seemed interested in it all of a sudden.

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin smiled slightly. "Malicious plan"? All he wanted was out. Knowing about Persona was just a personal curiosity, one that may end up being helpful in the future. After all, "knowledge is power," as they say. Still, Gin looked at Alisa thoughtfully.

So, he was trusted enough to be an information source, but he couldn't ask any questions without suddenly being regarded with suspicion? He didn't realize that he was simply being used. Here he had thought he was actually being treated like an ally.

With a sigh, Gin looked back away. "I wasn't meaning anything by it, really. I'm just curious, as you were; and I figured if you were going to ask about when I began,  I could ask about when you found your power." Gin paused for a moment before continuing. "As for a malicious plan, why would I do that? I'm trying to help you humans out. If you're gonna make assumptions about my intent based off of innocent questions, why should I assume that this will end well for me? How do I know that if I were to help get you guys out, that you wouldn't turn and kill me on principle?"

Gin was starting to have an angry tone of voice and his smile was gone, but he didn't care. He was still being quiet enough that nobody else would hear something that they shouldn't. "Now, I understand that you're probably asking yourself the same thing about me. Here's the thing- you didn't become a traitor to your species so that you could help out the race that was killing off your brothers. I'm sorry, but... What's the point of trying to help if I'm just going to end up with nothing in the end?"

[Ayakura Alisa]

"Exactly," I rubbed my forehead and looked incredibly indignant towards this kid. Did he have a single clue about anything he was saying? He was basically admitting he had an ulterior motive to this whole entire thing, and that's exactly what I was trying to get him to spill in the first place. "You've basically just told me you have an ulterior motive for helping me. No Shadow would simply just side with the humans without expecting anything for themselves. I simply want to ensure that what you want is purely for yourself and that you won't just suddenly double-cross the humans you want to help. And besides, why are you asking me if we won't turn and kill you on principle? The people never asked for your help in the first place," I said.

"You simply charged in and tried to assist thinking that people will take your word for being an ally. That's not how the human mind works. We have been well accustomed to battling your kind and any friendly move you play on us will be scrutinized. I cannot speak for my colleagues but I harbor no intention of directly hurting you unless you do something stupid. That's all. It seems very suspicious to me that a Shadow, who has successfully possessed and murdered someone who failed to stand up and accept his True Self would wish to know about the Persona. That's all."

I continued rubbing my forehead.

[Gin Takemoto]

Gin looked at the girl with an irritated look on his face. He knew he was admitting he had an ulterior motive. Heck, he had already told Alisa what it was! What he was saying now was that he honestly didn't care as long as he got out, and that his intentions weren't to just mindlessly slaughter the humans.

He opened his mouth to speak... Then promptly shut it. Saying anything now, considering how he could feel that the girl was just as irritated as he was. would have no point. It would be stupid, and it would likely get himself an enemy that he really didn't want. He placed his arm on the table and set his head down on it, face first.

He figured Alisa would probably say something else before it was a smart time for him to speak again.

[Ayakura Alisa]

"Fine. So you really do just want to get out," I sighed and looked back for a moment. "I'll believe you for now. I'll take your word for it." Well that was useless. This guy has nothing worth saying or sharing. What a colossal waste of time that was. And so much for going through the effort of getting into the school. For now I'll just have to keep tabs on him. He is... volatile. Could be dangerous at an inopportune moment. "I'm just apprehensive because it's impossible for me to discern at the moment if your kind are an immediate threat. I don't know how to gauge your true sincerity. You already said you want to get out, so the real reason why I pursued you is kind of moot because you don't know jack about the situation either."