2018-04-08 - The Demon Cat Strikes! Ye-jin's Opportunity?!
| Title: The Demon Cat Strikes! Ye-jin's Opportunity?! | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Ye-jin is accosted in the middle of her Student Council preparations by a feral cat, searching for her brother. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Ohtori Academy | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2018-04-08 - 2015-04-05 | |
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Ohtori Academy +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* The ivory crown on the brow of Southern Cross Island, Ohtori Academy is separated from the world by more than just water. Outside, education can be a luxury. Within this white-walled compound, education is luxurious. Marble colonnades spring up like fountain spouts, scarlet flowers drench every free surface. The architecture is at once daringly art deco and austerely Classical, white marble lending an angelic weightlessness to pillars and fences that can seem more woven than carved. At the center of campus is the Chairman's Tower, a dizzyingly tall spire in the center of a manicured grassy field. Radiating around this field are the lecture halls, dormitories, art buildings, and other facilities by which the chosen few receive education, with small class sizes in large buildings. It's common for students to refer to a building's location as if the hour hand of a great clock extended from the central tower. At twelve o'clock, for instance, the Duel Arena looms like a jade stormcloud, a great forest forming a living pagoda of leaves that reminds even longtime students that their school keeps many secrets. The rose is the emblem of Ohtori, and campus is decorated with a profusion of them, both living and frozen in frieze. Poppies are favored as well, and thick carpets of either flower can be found wherever the loosest excuse is available. Only the most bitter of winters seems able to fully erase the faint fragrance from the air, and students who leave the island via quick, convenient bridge or ferry can often find a memory of it on their clothing.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
In the middle of Spring Break, no one wants to be on Ohtori's campus at noon. There are arcades to play, boys to date, movies to see! There are so many things to do, unrestrained by homework or classes! ... well, there are the spring break assignments, but those can wait a few more days. Right? Right.
Of course, there are always those few students who stay, even now. Those hopeful candidates for School Council are hard at work polishing their campaigns. The most diligent students give their time to studying even though school is out, and the most delinquent students are forced to make up their work if they stand a chance of staying in school. And, of course, this is Ohtori - so there are the secret trysts and betrayals which naturally play out, without a single care for the holidays.
... and then, there's the Demon Cat of Ohtori.
Mikoto Minagi has narrowly avoided true delinquency, by the heroic efforts and bribery of her roommate Mai. She can't be described as as a diligent student in any fashion. She's not on the School Council, though she seems to have an increasing amount of friends there. And she doesn't care about romance or drama at all. So why is she here?
The answer to that is painfully simple, for anyone who has spoken more than three words to her while she's in this state. She's searching the land of Fuuka for her Lord Brother.
And she's on the rooftops, because of course she is. It's only natural. After all, where better to search than from on high?
But there's no one suspicious on the grounds at all. It's as if everyone has better things to do. She spies a couple which look suspicious, at one point - but then realises they're two girls, clustered by a hedge. They can't be her Lord Brother.
Walking across the rooftop, balancing easy as a cat, she spies an open window below. And Mikoto, who has never been one to plan her actions, decides it's naturally the best course of action to dive right through it.
Surely there's no one inside.
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Ordinarily Ye-jin Song would be among those avoiding school and anything to do with it on their spring break. While her grades paint her as an adequate student, her primary interests lie outside of the classroom-out in the hustle and bustle of the city, roaming the streets of Harajuku, taking in the views from high-rise lookouts, or reclining in expensive cafes.
Sadly, there is still work to be done in the halls of Ohtori. Student Council elections loom close on the horizon, and there's still at least a week or more of campaigning to be done before she can put aside the beleaguering efforts of catering to her undeserving peers. So she's here, in an unused room that she's commandeered as an impromptu campaign headquarters.
Desks and chairs have been pushed into a corner, jammed out of the way to make room for workstations and crafts tables. There are posters littering their surfaces, streamers and ribbons in piles, glitter, glue and tape in abundance. Ye-jin herself, of course, has had almost nothing to do with any of the actual construction. Hired hands and enamored followers have been left to such a mess, are are even now out roaming the grounds of Ohtori, leaving no surface untouched by some sign of her campaign for the rest of the student body to see upon their return.
Which leaves Ye-jin herself alone, seated at the table nearest the window, penning her name onto several dozen slips of paper. She does so with blatant indifference, swiping her pen from one side of a card to the other before repeating the process again. She is oblivious to quiet footsteps on the rooftop, or any other sound the Demon Cat may make, likely due to the headphones covering her ears.
It's harder to ignore when Mikoto comes through the window, though. She'll find herself on a table full of streams and other tangling material-and also facing startled Ye-jin. The would-be Vice President lets out a shrill sound when she's so suddenly disturbed, her head shooting up and her arm after.
Of all the weapons aimed at Mikoto, Ye-jin's pen is at least probably one of the least dangerous.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
A few things happen in quick succession, as if captured by the camera of one of Ye-jin's many creative lackeys:
Mikoto, diving in through the window, feet-first. Ye-jin's papers under those clever little paws, slipping against the unexpectedly high surface of the table. A pen, brandished, and quickly avoided with a sharp movement to the left, suspiciously well-trained for all it responds to an absolute non-threat - Which sends Mikoto tumbling into a pile of streamers and glitter and glue. Throughout, the panicked yelps of a cat who definitely did not intend to do that. "Aiiiieeeee!!!!"
At the end of this series of candid shots, there's Mikoto, upside down, crepe paper everywhere. She blinks up at Ye-jin with huge yellow eyes, realising that all she'd done was surprise an innocent student. For a long, suffering moment, she is stunned into silence.
Then she realises there is something in her mouth, and licking her hand reveals that she has swallowed glitter and oh god it's everywhere. She struggles to right herself, only to further entangle herself in what used to be a mostly orderly pile of craft goods. "Eeeyah!"
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Who the hell!?" This question follows a string of other and less pleasant inquiries in Ye-jin's native tongue. She's on her feet by the time Mikoto has tumbled into a mess of crafts, her makeshift weapon lowered as she leans to assess the threat.
Which, it turns out, is just a girl. One that she knows, too. The outline of Mikoto Minagi makes her eyes narrow into wary slits, her mind taken back to the little berserker and their short but vicious clash on an Akihabara street.
Her fingers tighten into a fist around her pen as she steps from behind her table, makes her way to loom over the tangled cat.
"What do you think you're doing?" She sounds distinctly unhappy. Understandable, perhaps, in the context of the small disaster that Mikoto's created.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Even if she hadn't fought that masked stranger in the street, Mikoto Minagi is well-known, in the darker sectors of the world. SEARRS exposed her for who she was, after all - a HiME. This, coupled with Ye-jin's very personal brush with the blade which no doubt rests within the case skew-whiff on her back, informs Mikoto as a very dangerous classmate to have!
... but she's really just Ye-jin's classmate, here in Ohtori. And Mikoto is at a disadvantage, because she has no idea that Ye-jin is her enemy. She's just the foreign girl from class, right..? Even Ye-jin's 5'2" frame can loom over Mikoto - she's a few inches shorter, and currently sprawled on the ground.
"Mikoto," comes the answer to the first question she actually understands. Matching Ye-jin's anger, the tone is standoffish - but, perhaps surprisingly, not particularly threatening. She straightens, slipping on spilt glue which sticks a bright red sheet of paper to her hand, but finally manages to get herself right-side-up and sitting cross-legged on the floor.
Ye-jin asks what Mikoto is doing, and Mikoto, ever literal-minded, replies with a frown: "... looking for my Lord Brother."
It's a weird and archaic way to say 'brother', which went out of vogue a long time ago. It's totally at odds with how simple the rest of her Japanese is.
The irritation of Ye-jin is distinctly forboding, but as Mikoto looks around, she realises that she's probably... really screwed up her art project. She's not quite sure what Ye-jin could be making - here, she coughs, glitter fluttering into her hand - but it looks like it was a big project. Kasagami was working on stuff too, right..? ... oh. Oh. Yeah, Mikoto messed that all up.
The shift of expression is plain as day on her face, from completely closed-off to a little more contrite. Mai would want her to apologise. How to apologise to a classmate she's never talked to before..? "... oops."
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Ye-jin meets Mikoto's initial frown with one of her own. She's of average height, Ye-jin, not particularly broad or traditionally imposing, but there's still something vaguely menacing about her silhouette. Her eyes linger on the other girl as she explains her purpose, and her brows arch imperiously at both the answer and the archaic terminology used in it.
She regards her uninvited visitor for a long, quiet moment. This, she knows, is Mikoto Minagi. The girl who had the audacity to raise a hand against her, not to mention her status as a HiME. Mikoto Minagi is her enemy.
--But not today, not right here, and not right now.
Right now she's just an annoyance, as can be seen clearly by the way Ye-jin flexes her jaw. She expels a breath, making visible effort to compose herself as she smooths wine-red hair away from her face. The girl kneels after, reaching out to begin gathering string and ribbon and other tangled knots and pull them off the unfortune cat.
"That's right, oops." She grumbles. The tension is still there, but it's softened somewhat. "What an eyesore. Hold still." If Mikoto does she'll make some attempt to clean the surrounding area, asking, "Where'd you come from, anyway? Schools out, your brother isn't around here."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
How strange, to be able to put aside the question of 'enemy'. Perhaps it's a good thing, that Mikoto is entirely unaware. It's always difficult, running into enemies in class and not being able to destroy them. Haughty girls, on the other hand, well - this is Ohtori. It's difficult not to run into them, and the best Mikoto can do is try not to make that statement literal.
Like she's done right here. At least she didn't barrel into Ye-jin. Mikoto can tell she's annoyed, and it makes her wary, because she doesn't know the girl. But it's clear now that it's her fault, and that makes her feel bad! She follows Ye-jin with her eyes, as the girl kneels down, and coming closer to eye-level seems to help her relax a little.
"Sorry," Mikoto says, as Ye-jin removes a ribbon which has tangled itself around Mikoto's braids. She dutifully holds still, though she can't help squirming a little when the other girl has to tug at paper stuck to her by craft glue. "Didn't know room was busy..." Did she not think that people don't normally leave their windows open when they're not around? At least Mikoto didn't burst in when everyone else was here. That would have been a political headache.
Ye-jin asks where she came from, and Mikoto points upwards. ... surely she doesn't mean she was on the roof? "My Lord Brother's in land of Fuuka," she replies, using yet another old word which doesn't fit with her style at all. She looks down, and sounds completely, utterly downcast as she explains. "I thought... since everyone's gone, it'd be easier..."
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
It would be inaccurate to call Ye-jin gentle, but at least she doesn't try to strangle Mikoto with ribbons. The paper stuck to her requires a bit of work, but eventually it's decoupled and flung off into a corner. There's no attempt to put the mess into any sort of order or organization, besides 'off Mikoto'. She has people that will clean it up for her, after all.
Once she's done the best she can-the glitter is probably sticking around, unfortunately-Ye-jin rises again. She looks up when Mikoto indicates that direction, and frowns briefly. It doesn't matter where she came from, though.
"Well, he's not in here." Her tone softens, gives just an inch. Her eyes remain on Mikoto as the girl slumps down. She doesn't understand the whole of the girl's plight, finding a brother seems simple enough to her. She's not quite sympathetic either, given their circumstance. But it is awkward, to see have her sitting around so distraught.
"Alright, fine," She concedes, "Who's your brother? What's he look like?" If he goes to Ohtori, surely Ye-jin would have encountered him by now, she reason.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto gets more than enough ribbon-strangling from Mami, and is definitely glad not to be strangled by Ye-jin in turn. She shakes her head, as the ribbon is freed, sneezes from the glitter. And here is the most important fact about Mikoto Minagi Ye-jin will ever learn, tactically or otherwise: Mikoto sneezes like a kitten.
"Oh," Mikoto says, unable to hide her disappointment when Ye-jin tells her that Lord Brother isn't here. She stays seated, for the moment, hands balling on the floor in her lap. She looks like she's about to rise, except - Ye-jin concedes, and asks her what he looks like.
And the tiny berserker looks for all the world like she was just run down by a truck in the middle of the night, caught helplessly in Ye-jin's dark headlights. "I... um..." She shakes her head, again. "He's my Lord Brother," she repeats herself, a hand curling at her chest, pressing against something unseen. "So... so he must look like me."
... she doesn't sound sure.
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"You don't know?" Ye-jin's tone is incredulous, and she makes effort to keep it from creeping back to open annoyance. She had assumed she could clear the matter up easily, if she had a name, or face for Mikoto's sibling. But Mikoto has neither.
It's strange to see the girl that fought so viciously like this, distressed by some mysterious relative. Just a week ago in Akihabara Ye-jin would have felt satisfaction at causing her enemy such pain. Here and now, it seems pointless. It seems...aggravating.
She shouldn't care. She doesn't care. She was taught not to.
"He's not here." She repeats. "But since you are," She might as well make the most of it. The girl moves decisively toward a less disturbed end of the table, shuffling several sheets of paper into her hand before she returns to where Mikoto has seated herself. Unceremoniously, the thick handful of fliers is thrust out toward the sulking intruder.
"Here. Apologize by posting these up. You're out looking anyway, you might as well." Each one is, of course, some variation of a smiling Ye-jin Song. "If your brother's around he'll have to come and vote, won't he?"
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto shakes her head, sadly. "He left... long time ago. I don't... remember..." She sounds so frustrated at herself, as if failing to find her brother is her own memory's fault. She grasps at something, under her shirt, and Ye-jin might spy the hint of a red cord around her neck beneath her clothing. "But - I'll know when I find him!"
He's not here, Ye-jin emphasises, only to lead into what is here. Mikoto takes the flyers, looking down at them, blinking big yellow eyes in momentary confusion. 'Let's vote Ye-jin for Vice President!' They exclaim, though the Ye-jin on the posters is smiling much more than the Ye-jin in front of her. She looks down, at the posters, and up at Ye-jin. Oh.
"Ye-jin... is campaigning?" What did she think she was doing?! But Mikoto asks the question so innocently. "Vice president... like Shizuru? I guess Shizuru's too old now..." She hadn't thought about it before, but she supposes Shizuru can't be vice president any more now she's in university. Is that how School Council works? She's never really thought about it.
And then that thought resolves fully, and Mikoto realises that next year, Mai will be in university. The year after that, Mikoto will--! She frowns to herself, as she picks herself up. "... university, huh..." ... did Ye-jin miss part of what she said, or did she just jump tracks that suddenly?
<Pose Tracker> Ye-jin Song [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Oh, do you know Shizuru-senpai?" Asks Ye-jin, finally offering up a smile to her visitor, adding after, "We're good friends." They had lunch together once, and this clearly means they're the best of friends. "I hope I can be as good of a vice president as she is."
She doesn't quite follow Mikoto's train of thought, most unvoiced as it is. But once she's handed off the flyers she makes an OK sign with thumb and forefinger. "Help me out, okay? I'll help you look for your brother, if you do." She smiles again, and it's not immediately obvious that her teeth are clenched more tightly than necessary.
She makes motion toward the door after, attempting to show Mikoto over in that direction. She's calmer now, re-donned her more benevolent and public facing persona. "Thank you, bye-bye~" And she waves. And keeps on waving, until Mikoto is gone.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Yup! Shizuru is good person!" Mikoto chirps, smiling. Shizuru always listens to her, and makes her feel like she's being understood. Shizuru is nice. And Ye-jin...
Mikoto regards her with big, curious eyes. Is Ye-jin nice? Certainly, she was irritated to see Mikoto, but that was Mikoto's fault. She helped clean Mikoto up, and asked about her Lord Brother. And she's friends with Shizuru, and she offered to help her look for her Lord Brother, too...
She's not friendly, but Natsuki isn't always friendly, either, so that doesn't mean she's bad. After all, Natsuki is good, right?
"... Ye-jin's a good person, too!" Mikoto decides after a long moment, nodding firmly. "I'm sure Ye-jin will do good!"
Mikoto is easy enough to steer, small as she is. She follows the indications to leave, waving in turn. "Bye-bye!" One of them is being entirely sincere.
And then she finds herself in the hall, with a bunch of posters in her hands. She looks down at them, frowning. "Hrmm..." How can she help Ye-jin out with these? There must be something only she can do.
Her face brightens, as she realises what it is she can do. And she nips into an empty room, opens the window, and hops back out onto the roof. She proceeds to lean down over the edge, completely oblivious to how precarious her position is, and slap a poster down on the brickwork.
... in the end, Ye-jin's posters are all a bit too high up to read properly, but they all go up, and it's going to take a ladder and some grit for anyone who wants to pull them down again.
