Logs: Encountering Himeru
Mikage-cho - West Side
At first glance, this is Lunarvale. It doesn't take long for people to know something about this place
is not Lunarvale... or even their own world. It may have something to do with the flashing wall of colors
around the perimeter of the city.
Fantastical creatures pulled from mythologies around the world, called "demons," prowl the streets. They
are often hostile, but can be convinced to leave one alone or even give assistance (...sometimes). The people
here seem largely untroubled by them, though places have started selling firearms and body armor. Yet, violence
between human beings here is unheard of. The Police Station doesn't exist, replaced by a forest of purple trees.
The area is less developed in places, almost like a trip back in time.
A light haze clouds the corners of one's vision, giving the whole sector the sensation of being in the
middle of a dream. Given the demons and the nightmarish black wall blocking the way to the east half of town,
however, one could not confuse this dream as pleasant. Such is the nature of Mikage-cho.
Rage. It's what's for dinner.
Okay maybe not THAT much, but to say that Himeru's mood had been soured in the last twenty four hours was an understatement. It was bad enough she was not even maintaining the facade of calm at all times, her face twisted into a frown rather than being kept in control. The turmoil inside her was a bubbling mass, a melting pot of emotional chaos, with one thing easily coming out on top: Purpose.
Screw going home, finding a way back became a tertiary objective. To go back without her friend, the person currently most trusted was not an option. Her anger almost made it a viable option to go for a Scorched Earth searching approach, but her reason remained too strong to actually act on it. She was alone, and there was no point of making enemies with everyone in the city.
The only clue she had was 'underground', and so Hime was wandering the city, continuing to draw her map of neighborhoods, areas, looking for what could be a possible place. The subway tunnels were a deathtrap, and it was possible Itsuka had been taken there but she could not investigate that area, thus the blackhaired Gekkoukan student continued in what she felt she could do. Asking around, looking, searching, anything to keep moving. If she stopped for even a minute...
There is at least one person who came from outside the bubble who is innocent to all this... but she won't be for very long. After A-ko's conversations with Minagi (known only to her as 'black-haired girl') and later Arisa, she's gotten curious enough to figure it might well be worth it to take a look around at the city, beyond the dorm near the high school where she's slept up 'til now.
It's... actually pretty bad.
She's been wandering for about an hour. There are, in fact, demons. They're not so bad if you just hang with them a little, or at least the ones she's run into have been all right. It may well be her naturally friendly nature, or perhaps that she's just got awesome music on her MP3 player.
What she encounters next, though, may well be far worse than any demon she's met so far: an angry Himeru. The girl with the headphones is walking down the street towards her, and while she tends to zone out while listening to her music, it does strike her that this person seems to be actively searching for something. She wonders vaguely for what, and slows down to watch her curiously for a moment.
When someone approaches her, Himeru glances in her direction. Not demonic, looks human, vaguely normal and not 'I will rip your face off and run around wearing it', so she has no reason to just raise her guard. Instead, the blackhaired girl snaps her cellphone open and presses a few keys, recalling an image from the phone's memory card.
"Have you seen this person?" she asks rather bluntly, shoving the phone forward and holding it steady, showing a very clear facial picture of Itsuka Mizuhara. It looks vaguely like a school ID picture, although how she managed to get her hands on that is questionable.
Beside that, Himeru remains very still, if a little miffed. Her voice doesn't sound angry, but she does sound like she's in a hurry, this is important to her after all.
Himeru Namikawa
Himeru Namikawa
Height: 5"6'
Weight: It's rude to ask.
A girl somewhere in her mid-teens, Himeru looks like she's on a day where school is not in session, or perhaps
the day is already over. Her glasses have been left behind, her hair is untied and her choice of clothing is
vastly different from the standard Gekkoukan uniform, consisting of a pair of slightly faded blue jeans that
fit her well enough to require no belt with a black halter top with nothing fancy on it, given she only seems
to be an almost B cup but not quite and thus has nothing worth 'showing off' as a girl her age. Given the
colder weather, a black jeans jacket is worn over it. Her feet covered with once-white now-grey sneakers that
seem to have seen incredibly long use with black socks underneath that, if one actually gets a good look at
her ankles have cat portraits on them. The young girl is probably openly carrying a bokken, a wooden sword
shaped like a katana.
A-ko gives Himeru a curious look when the girl who's on the hunt turns to her next and shows her a picture of someone on her cellphone. The redhead leans in to get a better look at the portrait, then shakes her head in the negative.
Then she looks up at Himeru herself thoughtfully. The girl seems pretty miffed about this. She thinks of the demons and how upset those other two girls seemed (how awful everything is hasn't *quite* settled in on the girl with the headphones yet), and her expression shifts into concern. Maybe it's the same deal here.
"Why," she asks, "what's wrong?"
"Friend of mine. Kidnapped, yesterday." was about the short version. "There's no police station to report to around here, no one who will help in some organised way. No one who even knows who she is, who gives a shit...all they care about is finding out about this city, and how to go home."
Himeru turns her head sideways, spitting to the ground in a very unladylike fashion. "I won't leave her behind, answer enough?" she adds as she snaps the clamshell phone shut and shoving it into her jacket pocket.
"So that is the tale of why I'm looking for this person. What brings you out here? It's not exactly perfectly safe out here, although I guess it's not so bad either. For demons, the locals are far less kill devour slaughter than you'd read in myths and legends." asks the Gekkoukan student, crossing her arms and tilting her head, as she looked up and down trying to appraise this normal seeming girl. Kept her mind busy to do so.
"Kidnapped?" The redhead sounds surprised by that. She does listen to that, though, finally pausing on her MP3 player, the headphones already around her neck, to pay attention to Himeru. She gives a mighty frown when she hears nobody even cares, planting her hands on her hips. Unbothered by the spitting, she gives a single firm nod when asked if that's answer enough.
"I heard about the demons and I was curious," she replies, lowering her arms. "I *was* at the school before. Do you want help trying to find your friend?"
She *seems* sincere enough. At the least, she's tough mentally; she doesn't seem bothered at all by Himeru eyeing her up and down.
A nod of confirmation. She hated the very idea of it, but at the same time Himeru chastised herself for not considering the risk. She doesn't fully understand the meaning or reasoning as to why this occured, but it's something she can worry about finding explanations later. Much later. Finding her friend came first.
"They're not too bad. Some act tough, but in a way they're almost...human. Or maybe we're closer to demons than we thought." Food for thought, for when her mind will care for such philosophical questions. She does however quirk an eyebrow at the question.
"Well, it could get dangerous, so if you can handle yourself I won't argue. If you're not sure...well, be careful and run if you have to." Normally, she would have refused, she would have walked alone, but right now Hime felt too lonely to just try and keep someone at arm's reach. "The last clue I recieved was that she was trapped underground. The demons in the subway are not a place I can go, but that doesn't mean it's the only possibility." she says, before turning around and looking like she's about to start walking again. She doesn't, due to one thing:
"Himeru Namikawa."
A-ko, meanwhile, hardly knows anything about anything that's going on! She only really started to take the idea of the city being full of demons seriously earlier today, and even now it doesn't feel real (or... unreal?) to her, even as she's walking through Mikage-cho and nothing is as it should be in the other world. Maybe it's for the best that way. Keeps her from freaking out and breaking down.
She looks thoughtful at Himeru's suggestion that maybe they're closer to demons than they think. She doesn't know what to make of that idea, but... Either way, she grins and totes up her handy-dandy broom (which she was DEFINITELY CARRYING WITH HER THIS ENTIRE TIME), which is clearly the best weapon possible against a demon encounter. "It's to save your friend, right? It's always best to work together!"
Underground, huh. A-ko's brows furrow as she considers that. She has no ideas whatsoever, but at... least she tries? Nothing is offered, though she does follow along with Himeru when the other girl starts walking again. The sudden offer of a name bereft of any context, meanwhile, is met with a startled blink.
"Huh?"
It's not like Himeru knows that much herself. In all her furious efforts and constant work to make sense of it all, it wasn't exactly fruitful. Or at least, she didn't consider it much, but then again she was pretty harsh toward herself most of the time. She could work harder, she could do better. She could learn more of the city, map more, do more. Always more.
A nod at the concept of teamwork. She's not fond of taking someone who she has no idea what sort of reaction she would do in an actual conflict, but perhaps this girl's enthusiasm was something to bring a smile to Hime's lips. "Yes, I suppose so."
"That is my name." she elaborates, as the blackhaired girl really does get started on her walk, headed north as far as she can make sense of this place, ASSUMING the magnetic north is the true north. "What's yours? I don't want to say 'hey, you' all the time, it's rude."
Who knows if where the magnet points to really is north? It might even change on them every so often. You can't really tell when you're trapped inside a place surrounded by a dome of light. It's probably better to work off of reference points. ...but A-ko isn't the type to think of that. She simply grins back to Himeru.
She laughs, part in humor and part in realization when Himeru explains. "Himeru-chan~" she repeats. "Great meeting you!" A pause to consider, before she grins again, ruddy eyes sparkling with humor. Well, why not? She already said it to Arisa! And so the girl winks. "You can call me A-ko!"
Playfulness shifts into curiosity. "What about your friend?"
Her map was drawn assuming one direction was north, it hardly mattered much. It was the sort of map where she divided neighborhoods in squares, and used recognisable landmarks mostly. Himeru got this idea reading a book about people stuck in a desert of all things, following an ancient map to treasure or salvation.
Most of them died, but that's not the lesson of the book. The girl who survived did become the avatar of the sand goddess. But then caused the Apocalypse. But it was a really good book. A bit of a sweatdrop moment. 'chan'? She's...the first girl who has ever called her that since-
Hime shakes her head, no. She can't let her mind go that way. Not here, not now. "A pleasure, A-ko-chan." To one familiarity goes another. It's not a very normal name, but then Lunarvale was apparently a very americanised city. Maybe it's a cool name, across the ocean. The weapon Himeru carried remained in the self-sown straps on the back of her jacket, but the idea of a wooden sword and a broom against demons brought a faint smirk to her lips. They would be easily underestimated, but that's something the Gekkoukan student liked-no, wanted to happen.
Her pace is steady, until she catches sight of a lone little Pixie dragging a Mr. Freezie from a convenient store, the frozen treat disproportionally bigger than the little demon. The blackhaired girl considers for a moment before setting a course toward it, "Excuse me, can I have a moment of your time?"
Arisa turned quickly into Arisa-chan, too. It's just part of who A-ko is. She giggles when it seems like Himeru takes the name seriously too--aaaah, it's so cute! There's a bit of an extra bounce in her step as they keep going. She's having a lot of fun already. Then again, having to walk around when the city's like this is always more fun when you've got someone with you, right?
Lock on target: Pixie with a Mr. Freezie. A-ko nearly gasps in delight, and she heads on towards it. When Himeru opens with her question, the redhead follows with, "Hi! We just wanted to talk for a sec~"
She's anything if not serious. It would be judgemental to consider the name as any less than any other name, and Himeru was a firm believer of 'treat how you would wish to be treated'. She doesn't quite see what she has to be so happy about, but then, maybe she's more worry-free. There was a thing as blissful ignorance, but this just felt different. Maybe A-ko was just a naturally cheerful girl...
The pixie slows down and hovers in place, hugging the frozen treat close thinking the two dirty female humans might want to take it away. "Stay away! Don't move any closer." she warns, feeling a fair bit intimidated due to the obvious size difference. Even if she was cute enough that Himeru would not strike unless provoked, or given good reason to.
"I...we just want information." The phone is snapped open, the process repeated of loading up the picture. "Have you seen this person?" she asks, causing the floating demon to hover a little closer to get a good look before she shakes her head. "Thank you for your time." is said politely but with a little dejected tone, and the walk starts over again.
"Are you from...well, maybe not here, but Lunarvale? What got you into this place, A-ko-chan?"
That's always a good philosophy, and if Himeru mentioned it aloud, A-ko would heartily agree. There isn't, perhaps, anything in *particular* going on right now to be happy about--but they're alive, aren't they? That alone is something to feel joy in!
"Why not?" A-ko asks, puzzled by Pixie's reaction. Still, they get the information that they wanted, even if it's in the negative, so the girl simply gives her a friendly smile before they move on. A-ko wonders if maybe they're going about this the wrong way. If Himeru's friend is supposed to be underground... "Maybe we should talk to demons who look like they're from underground," she muses thoughtfully.
She shrugs at Himeru's other questions. "I don't know how I got here. I just woke up and I was at school. But yeah, I'm from Lunarvale. What about you?"
"You can tell the difference?"
To Himeru, demons looked like demons. Asps, Lilims, Pixies, Jack Frosts, Pyro Jacks, they had different characteristics but she would never be able to tell which ones might know more of the underground, sewers, or whatever. "If you see one that might look like it, then ask him. I guess." she says, lifting her shoulders. Her eyes glance left and right, looking for buildings that might serve as underground secret bases for Evil Supervillains. Itsuka...never mentionned who or what took her. Hime omitted to ask, so the fault was a bit both ways.
"I came here to find a friend, and helping my now-kidnapped other friend regarding a certain matter. Distract security forces so certain investigators could try and dig information regarding less than proper business plans." To go too deep in detail seemed unnecessary, and she doesn't entirely trust A-Ko to know where she stands, but the cheerful girl did not radiate any vibe that would make her seem like a threat. "I found my first friend here, but lost the second...I swear I'm going to have to save up my allowance for a _year_ and get them GPS phones..."
A pause, before Himeru sighs. "Sorry, I should not ramble so much about irrelevant details. I'm from Port Island, but happened to be in Lunarvale when whatever happened that brought me here. I'd love to know what exactly occured."
A-ko shrugs. Some would look earthy or something, right? Made out of stone or with drills or all zombified and dead something. That's her logic, anyway. She nods at Himeru's encouragement to try to talk to any demons that seem like they'd look like it. It sure is hard, judging by appearances, though.
The explanation of what's going on in Himeru's life, as censored as it may be, still gets A-ko's attention. Without her music to listen to, there's nothing to distract her, so she looks directly at Himeru; the effect may be that she's not paying attention to anything *but* her. At least she doesn't ask questions about why Himeru was 'distracting security' or 'trying to find missing friends.' That would probably be awkward!
"It's fine," A-ko reassures her, smiling gently. The smile fades into a thoughtful, almost nostalgic, even sad expression. "Port Island, huh... How is it?"
Judging from appearances, while possible, was something Himeru can't do well for non-humans. She can pin a person's attitude and thoughts looking at their face, their reactions, she can piece together a person's intentions and goals effectively. A demon? Doesn't work the way humans do, she has only days of experience dealing with them, and she can't read their faces leaving her at a disadvantage. And even if they might look like an underground type, trying to approach the topic without offending, like asking a black man if he does hip-hop.
If she would have asked, it's likely Hime would have been evasive about it. Somewhat, anyway. Knowledge can be damning, she did not want to harm the innocence of her new acquaintance.
"It's pretty big. It's an artificial island but you can't even tell. It does make it mostly humid weather, but the breeze is wonderful on a warm sunny day. During colder days however it's a little chillier than on the mainland. The school there has decent facilities and the people are nice. It has a mall and a train station, and a few other places but I never really cared for it much. I don't actually live on the island itself, my family has a house north of it, but the monorail network is wonderful and convenient."
If A-ko *did* judge by appearances, she at least wouldn't mean anything by it... but for some, that doesn't really help. Innocence can, at times, be cruel. But A-ko is innocent of this concept as well, as well as whatever deeper darkness there is in Himeru's life.
She listens to Himeru, a smile playing on her lips, as the younger girl describes Port Island. "It sounds really nice these days," she remarks at length. "You sound like you like it a lot too."
After all, didn't Himeru talk a lot about what the weather's like and what sorts of things are there, and where she lives relative to the island proper?
Appearances can be masks, deception, a person who puts no airs about who they are can also be more dangerous than someone who does. It was an interesting thing, the 'willful lies' people went along. It was a socially accepted thing, and it left Himeru a little more bitter about the world of adults.
"I wouldn't care for it as much if it wasn't for the people I met there." admits the young girl, sounding less and less bitter by the minute. She hasn't forgotten her goal, her heart isn't lighter, but just talking with someone, moreso someone who is a little friendly, is a bit of a balm for the soul. The distraction was doing her good. "I hated it at first. I did not want our family to move due to my father's work, but now I'm glad. Even if some of it was not all that good." a pause, as she refocuses and makes sure to look around as they walk, she was starting to tunnelvision while talking. "Would you like to visit sometime, A-ko-chan? I would not mind showing you around, assuming we...find a way out of here someday, anyway."
A-ko hasn't thought much about the world of adults. For her, even at her age, everything is still fresh and new and wonderful. Why worry about what'll happen tomorrow? And while the past may be painful, especially when dredged up... There's still a lot of good things going on right now. Live life for the moment!
A grin spreads across the redhead's face when Himeru testifies the friends she's made as the reason she likes the place. Even if not everything was good, it sounds like for the most part it was, and isn't that for the best?
"I'd love to!" she replies, waving off the idea that they'll have to get out of here first to do something like that. "I want to meet your friends too." She looks thoughtful then, a thought occurring to her. "That girl you're looking for... she's one of them, isn't she?"
Himeru could perhaps learn a thing or two from her new acquaintance' attitude, she could stand to live in the moment more, but she would not allow it for various reasons. Things that would likely horrify or depress her companion to even discuss.
"The person I'm looking for is one of the people I trust alot, yes." Not perfectly, but then to gain Himeru's absolute trust would be a very special day. "She is my classmate and my friend, I don't fit in terribly well with most people and am not a very good person at making friends, but I've found a few that could accept me for what flaws I have." She doesn't bring up her perks, because it would be boasting needlessly. If someone can love you despite your flaws, then it speaks for itself. "What of your friends, A-ko-chan? Did they get taken to this strange city too-"
~BEEP, BEEP~ goes something in her jacket, causing the blackhaired girl to stop in surprise and reach for the device in her jacket, snapping the clamshell phone open to see a text message. The contents make her frown. "Tch...no helping it then. Hope for Peace, prepare for War."
Who knows? There's no way to no for sure without saying so... but some things just aren't things you say to someone you only just met, even if they *are* really friendly.
"You seem plenty friendly to me," A-ko remarks, winking at Himeru. Perhaps the younger girl *is* bad at making friends--she sure seemed pretty angry earlier!--but if that were totally true, she wouldn't have calmed down like this, right? Himeru should give herself more credit, she thinks.
Any further talk about friends, though, is derailed by the arrival of the text message. A-ko watches her read it with open curiosity, and attempts to angle her neck to get a look at it. "What's wrong?" she asks as she does so.
"I had been a little...lonely today." admits the blackhaired girl. Part of it was due to the lack of resonance from A-Ko. She could still be strong and dangerous, but Himeru felt she could relax a little more and talk in a nicer way. No manipulation, no thinking of how this person figures in the Grand Scale of Things. Hell, the friendly attitude of the redhead served as a soothing mist of the storm that raged in the bokken-wielding girl's heart. "And you are disarmingly nice, A-ko-chan. I mean that in the best possible sense."
The text message however kept Hime's face in a frown as she snaps the phone closed again and pocketed it. "My friend is in the other part of town. There are not many ways of getting there. If they are not open to discussion at letting me pass, which I doubt, then there will be no choice but to take the bloody road. There's going to be some people who want to spearhead a path to the other side, so..."
A-ko giggles, pleased by the praise. "Thank you! I'm glad I could cheer you up, Himeru-chan." She *had* been pretty snarly when they started talking, though if no one was willing to help her find her friend, A-ko can understand why. Maybe that black-haired girl is like that, but it's surprising that Arisa-chan would be like that... She seemed like she was really about helping others. After all, she offered to help her, didn't she?
She sobers, though, at the news that Himeru's friend is on the other side of town. It... doesn't exactly mean much of anything to her, but Himeru's gotten more serious, so it's sort of affected her too. A bloody road? Spearheading a path? "You're going to fight the demons?" she guesses. "Will that be hard?"
"And I thank you for doing it. I feel a little better now...I know what I have to do, at least." Arisa would likely have helped but that was part of the problem. Himeru did not _want_ to ask her other friend for help, fearing that Shiratori-san was already stretching herself too thin dealing with this, trying to help people, figure out the deal between this Aki and Mai, and being relatively selfless. Too selfless. She had been informed of the situation and nothing more. This was not a responsability she would add to her friend' shoulders. Heck, dissapearing into Mikage-cho had worried Hime badly enough, to find her had been reassuring, but only a little so. She felt...changed.
"I don't know." is the answer. Not usually something people wanted to hear from a girl who did everything in her power to know what she was going up against. "It could be like alley gangs, tough facade but at the first sign of someone willing to apply force, scattering to four winds. Or it could be a place some people will draw their last breaths from. But I need to go through, and hopefully I will be able to come back and see you again A-ko-chan." She can't say with certainty, but she would like to. Himeru however then turns around, "Since I know where to focus my efforts however, there's no point looking further for now. Let's head toward the school, it's getting late and I don't want to run into less than friendly night demons. My emotions might run too wild for my own good, and I could not garantee their safety." Hime doesn't want to be a murderer needlessly, even in a city of demons who might care little for human lives.
Figuring her companion and dare she say friend would likely agree, the black haired girl begins the trek back toward the School. The Rebellion HQ had better facilities, but it was damaged and truthfully she didn't want to be there, not tonight.
