Okina Arcade II
   
  

 /======================( - Okina City - Strip Mall - )=======================\ 
|                                                                              |
|  Okina City is famous not only for the train station, but also for the       |
| number of businesses that have set up shop through the strip malls that run  |
| around the station.                                                          |
|  The strip malls run the gamut from the humble and affordable to the         |
| exquisite and expensive. There really is no end to what's available for      |
| purchase here. By all means any given place should be packed to its limit,   |
| but there always seems to be enough space for you or any friends to go about |
| their business without the hassle of giant crowds.                           |
|  Interestingly, the shopkeepers here won't call you out for skipping class.  |
| Maybe the margins here aren't as profitable as they were hoping when they    |
| first set up shop here.                                                      |
|===============================( - Players - )================================|
| Casey Coburne [DS] <None>             Susumu Uezumi [U] <>                   |
|===============================( - Objects - )================================|

|================================( - Exits - )=================================|
| <O> Out:                 Okina City                                          |
 \============================================================================/
Okina is really a pretty city. Casey wishes she had time lately to go exploring more, but delving into the depths of mystery that is the Yakuza and Fishy and really what in the world was she thinking accepting to do it - aside from the challenge, that is - so she's kind of preoccupied as she wanders through the strip mall.

Leaning against a wall nearby a small convience store, Casey pulls out a pad of pen and paper, writing on it quickly, taking down notes as they occur to her.


Akatsuki doesn't have a ton of reason to be in Okina City right now, save perhaps that he felt like doing a bit of shopping away from Port Island for the afternoon after Saturday classes. He'll be back by Dark Hour; it's his turn to do Dark Hour patrol tonight.

Emotionally speaking... maybe he just wanted to be away from Port Island /or/ Sumaru for an afternoon. A lot of things are changing; some for the good, some for the bad, some just... changing, and he may or may not be able to do anything about them. He and Hinata broke up, Hinata and her friends are off to try to save Blaise's mother tonight, the aftershocks from Mikage-cho are *still* being felt, and there's Tatsuya and... Tohya...

Akatsuki sighs, shaking his head as he runs his fingers through his bangs, then makes an abrupt turn--right into Casey.

"Ah, sorry!" he utters, staggering back a step before straightening and offering her a concerned look, as well as a help with anything if necessary. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to--" He pauses then. This girl looks... familiar. Has he met her before?


Akatsuki isn't the only one without a lot of reason to be in Okina City. But not having a lot of reason to be somewhere has never really stopped Fumiya from being there before.

Well he does have kind of a reason. He wants to kick back in unfamiliar (less familiar?) territory to get away from things. Besides having to deal with a few personal demons, and schoolwork, his life since getting back from Mikage-cho has been mostly peaceful. But despite that part of him gets tired of seeing the same thing every day in Inaba, and going to Port Island usually entails a trip to his parents and he'd rather not right now.

So he called up another dude who he knew would also be tired of samey old Inaba, and dragged him all the way to Okina. Movies? Arcade? Any time waster is fine by him!

"Isn't that right, Shirou?" Fumiya says to his pal/kidnapping victim as they exit the station, finishing the tail-end of some random discussion. Probably about babes.


"If you say so, Fumiya." Shirou answers, with a bit of a snark. If Fumiya was the boundless energy, Shirou was the sounding board and quiet partner in crime. Heaven help us all once he starts to /plan/ his actions. But for now, yes, Shirou is tagging along with Fumiya, running a few fingers through his brown hair, combing it out of his eyes a bit as they take a turn and head coincidently towards Casey and Akatsuki.

Shirou doesn't know either of them, so for now he's focused on his friend. He's still somewhat expecting a shoe to drop, metaphorically, knowing that Fumiya knows about his own part that was played in the whole Mikage-cho saga... "I'm thinking... arcade. 's been a while since I fought something digital."


"Eek!" Casey yelps, rather feminine, staggering back from Akatsuki. Her pen drops from her hands, rolling to a stop by Fumiya. (Do pens and pencils have a thing for him or something?) Her pad of paper is barely held in her suddenly loose grip, shaking her head a bit to get her bangs out of her eyes to see. Once she does, her eyes widen, eyebrows raising into her bangs.

"E-Enda-san?" She asks, taking another step back to get a better look. "Enda-san!" She says, relieved. "Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't write out here, but I had an idea occur to me..." She gives him a wan smile. "O-hey, did you see where my pen went...?"


"...Ah, Casey!" Akatsuki recognizes the middle schooler once she recognizes him first, and he gives her a warm grin. "It's been a while! I wasn't expecting to see you again here. Your pen--" His eyes follow the general direction in which he thought he saw it go, and it lands near... a guy with a neon shirt on. Um. He looks--vaguely familiar too, though that might be the gaudy clothes. He doesn't recognize the guy's friend, though.

He does, however, catch a snatch from their conversation--'fought something /digital/'? Hmm. Tucking that away, Akatsuki approaches them a few steps. "Hey there!" he calls, raising his quiet voice their way, Fumiya's in particular. "Could you get that pen that landed by your feet, please?" Otherwise he can just approach once they're no longer in danger of crushing it and pick it up himself.


Oh, don't worry Shirou. Fumiya still fully intends to have words with you about what happened. He's just waiting for a time when you LEAST EXPECT IT.

Because he totally hasn't just forgotten. Nope.

As the pen rolls near his foot, Fumiya stops his conversation short as he bends down to pick it up. "Whoa, deja-vu." They're not in a mall right now, right? A hellmouth isn't gonna open up again now, right? Uh...

Even without needing Akatsuki request, Fumiya just tosses the pen at Casey. "Head's up, babe." He's not going through all THAT again.

He turns back to Shirou. "Never been all that good at video games that aren't rhythym based, but I'm up for whatever."


"Oh come on, there's a rhythym to everything... the flow of combat, the patter of bullets in a shooter... just gotta apply it." Shirou smirks just a bit. Honestly he would rather get it done and over with, but he was trying to be a bro and let him wait till he was ready. He wasn't going to appologize; he did it for a girl. Surely Fumiya of all people would understand.

He eyes the two, nodding a bit to both, but staying rather standoff-ish. If they could sense resonance, they'd feel a wet, deep darkness somewhat rolling off of him. He really couldn't 'hide' himself all that well.


"Thanks." Casey says, snatching the pen out mid-air in a smooth motion. She gives Fumiya a small smile, before asking, "I've never heard anyone use babe outside of the states..." He certainly doesn't look Japanese... "Are you from America too?" It's a curious question, and it's not even about the neon.

"Thanks, Enda-san." She says, politely. Casey is resonance deaf- she doesn't have a Persona, and can't read them.


"No problem, Casey," Akatsuki tells the younger girl. He even manages not to grimace when she asks Fumiya if he's American by what seems to be the sheer basis of the fact that he used an 'American' word. That's... really kind of racist, though he suspects she doesn't realize it. He glances quickly over in Fumiya's direction. He doesn't seem like the type of person who'd take offense, but you never really know.

And considering what else they're saying between themselves, it might be a good idea to stay on guard regardless! 'The flow of combat'? Are they a pair of delinquents? ...Not that this really even means much to Akatsuki, considering the person who's fast becoming his most trusted friend calls herself a delinquent, and another person whom he's come to trust and respect probably also counts as one too. Ah, Seven Sisters. Meanwhile, Akatsuki likewise doesn't feel any Resonance--it's not his forte, save where his brother is concerned--but Shirou would be able to sense from him something strong, reassuring, stoic, almost grim.


Fumiya shrugs at Shirou. "I mean more musically-based games, dummy." Sure combat and stuff has a rhythym to it, but Fumiya's just not very good at video games that don't specifically use music as a component.

He's the type of player who died a lot to that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros.

Fumiya blinks in surprise at Casey's question, feeling almost flattered in a weird kind of way. He lifts his glasses up, smirking. "Naw." Is his reply. "Just a fan, I guess. It's kind of a long story." A story which, like a lot of other things, is something he'd rather not have to go into right now.

Turning back to Shirou, Fumiya asks "So, did we decide on the arcade?" The interuption almost made him totally forget the conversation they were having not two minutes ago.

Incidentally, Fumiya's resonance-sensing is pretty weak, which is kind of ironic considering how loud and obnoxious his own resonance is.


Shirou, thankfully, has long learned to tune him out; he can't sense other's resonance like others, he can filter it through objects and the area, feeling it indirectly, sensing the ripples in the world rather then the people themselves. So for now Akatsuki isn't quite felt though he can get a bit of a glimmer from him. "The arcade, sure."

He's not trying to be anti-social, not really. But he's more focused on chatting with his own friend. Though he /does/ peer back at Akatsuki a little more, feeling some of that stoic nature, giving him a grim nod in return.


She doesn't. She gives Fumiya a shrug, grinning. "I've never heard the term used here since I moved from the States a a year ago, forgive me." Casey remarks, giving him a polite smile. "Of course, I don't even recall it being a well-used term considering my parents used it as kids in the eighties." She gives Fumiya a look, one eybrow raising as she tucks pen and paper back into her messenger bag.

"Hey, Enda-san... do you know anyone named Kannushi?" She says, thoughtfully.


Well, they seem like normal enough kids... Maybe Akatsuki's overthinking it. Then again, maybe not; the more he looks at Fumiya, the more he thinks he's seen him before at the SEES dorm. Well, it's not like they're causing any trouble, so it's probably all right. Shirou catches his eyes as he moves to turn away and gives him a grim nod; Akatsuki does likewise, wondering what that was all about.

"Kannushi?" the Gekkoukan senior replies, turning back to Casey. "It's not really a name, actually. 'Kannushi' is a term that refers to someone who takes care of a Shinto shrine. Why do you ask?"

Fumiya jabs Shirou once in the chest with his elbow, as if to say 'liven up man'. People are (usually) awesome and life is good, so enjoy it! Even though he may be more trying to re-affirm this to himself, lately, but hanging around a 'lower tempo' guy like Shirou does help Fumiya appreciate his usual outlook a bit more.

If that even makes the slightest bit of sense.

Fumiya grins at Casey, though doesn't say much more on the subject. Maybe another day when he's feeling more like indulging in his eighties schtick. Maybe if they ever run into each other at a Karaoke bar he can sing 'American Woman' and make even more of a fool out of himself.

"Arcade it is, then." He nods at Shirou, before looking back at the other pair. "So where are you guys headed off to?" He asks, in his overly friendly way. After all, Casey is still a babe, even if she might be taken by this other guy. Fumiya's never let that stop him before, though.


Shirou smirks a bit as he's nudged. Eh, whatever. It's good to be around 'hot-blooded' guys every now and again, because even under his 'low tempo' guise there /is/ a man of action.

That probably made even less sense.

But that's why, begrudgingly, they've become friends. Shirou rolls his shoudler, nodding just a bit to the other two. "Yeah, feel free to come along... there's a good one not far from here."


"It is?" Casey says, startled. "Why would he tell me to call him by a shrine workers title..." Casey muses over this out loud, shaking her head. "Ah well, It shan't matter." Darkside stuff stays with Darkside.

Fumiya gets another smile, before she looks at Akatsuki. "An arcade sounds like fun. There's not much else to do than wander around..>"


"Well, maybe he *was* a shrine worker," Akatsuki replies, shrugging. "Or maybe it's an alias. Without knowing more about whomever you're talking about, all I can do is guess." It doesn't seem like Casey intends on saying anything else on the matter, though, so he's willing to drop it.

Instead, he looks over at the boys as they invite him and Casey along to the arcade, then looks down at her. He smiles and shrugs then, and says, "Why not? It's been ages since I've been to an arcade." He'll fall in step with them, giving Fumiya another look. Hmm. "By the way, my name's Akatsuki Enda," he says, then nods over to his American companion. "That's Casey Coburne. And you two are?"


"Sweet." Fumiya nods, and heads off with the others to the ARCADE. "I'm Fumiya Watanabe, and this is Shibrou Preppigawa." He says, introducing himself and /kind of/ introducing Shirou. It's close enough, right?

The banter probably keeps up until they reach the ARCADE, whereupon Fumiya immediately starts looking for the DDR machines, and pretty much any game where in order to win you have to make as big a fool of yourself through flailing around as possible. Those games are awesome, especially for Fumiya, since people who can not be embarrassed looking like a jackass have a much easier time winning them.

"Damn I wish Inaba had a place like this..." He muses, and sighs. Even the atmosphere is great. Arcades were in their prime in the eighties, after all.


"/Shirou Sekigawa/." Is SHirou's turse reply to his semi-introduction.

But it's forgotten easily enough as they get to the arcade. Shirou hangs out with Fumiya, shaking his head a bit. "Yeah, really. I'd kill for like, one of those old fighting games. Those were actualy my favorites... but then again Sega made some really cool motion games back then." He geeks a bit, and, well, that's rather like him to just blather on.

"Oh, I am /not/ trying that out." He adds, once he sees the DDR machine


Wait a second...

That DDR machine is occupied! And by a robot. Aigis is practicing her dance moves on the DDR machine. As it is a matter of pure calculated timing rather than dance skill, she seems to be able to get very good scores. She's basically at 100 percent on this song she's doing. There's a lot of cheering coming from her machine. She hasn't quite noticed that others are approaching yet. She doesn't seem like she's enjoying herself, she's certainly not smiling, but maybe she is and just is choosing not to smile. Aigis can be impossible to read sometimes, or at least difficult.

"Hum." She says, "La. La. La." She steps on the left arrow. "La. La." Right arrow. "Lala." She hops on the right and left arrows at the same time. There is a loud THUNK as she hits down on it.


"Oh /yes/!" Casey crows, following Fumiya towards the DDR machine.

She at least, will make a fool of herself for this. "You both live in Inaba? That explains why I haven't seen you over in Sumaru." Aigis is watched, although the THUNK When she comes down gets a puzzled look. "She's really good!"


Akatsuki smiles slightly at Fumiya's bumbling of Shirou's name, and Shirou's consequent snapping at him. They're almost like a comedy duo. He keeps this opinion to himself, though. "Watanabe-kun and Sekigawa-kun, huh... Nice meeting you two." Watanabe... Fumiya Watanabe. ...Wait, wasn't that guy thrown into the TV a while back, when Aragaki and Ran-chan were in too?

Akatsuki straightens slightly, staring at Fumiya for a second longer; then he tears his attention forward, which is coincidentally right where Aigis is, playing on the DDR machine. ...wow, she actually *is* excellent. He's not really surprised by that, all considered. Nor is he surprised that Fumiya's from Inaba--why should he, now that he's figured out who he is? Shirou Sekigawa... he recognizes that name from the reports on Mikage-cho, too, come to think. He slides his eyes back to the kid. ...hmm. "She is, yeah," he remarks to Casey. "That's Aigis, a classmate of mine. She's excellent at that sort of thing."


Fumiya just chuckles at making Shirou flustered, but leaves it at that. Teasing can be so entertaining, but it's good not to over-do it.

As he locates his preferred machines, he also winds up staring at Aigis' moves. He never expected to meet her at an Arcade, honestly, but he can't say he's surprised to see she's awesome at DDR. The few seconds of time to prepare for the next steps must be more than enough for her SUPER FUTURISTIC ROBOT BRAIN.

Well this might be tough.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised she is..." He interjects on Akatsuki's comment to Casey, scratching his cheek. Now he wonders if it's gonna be worth showing off on DDR if Aigis has already stolen the show, despite her lack of feet.


Shirou just... watches the impassionate girl nail the games.

"Yeah, I think 'm gonna go find a shooter." He pats Fumiya on the back. "Fight on, Neon-Bro. For great justice."

And with that cryptic and strange remark, he heads towards the back of the arcade, towards a cluster of systems that all have plastic guns of some sort or another.


You don't need feet to play DDR, you just need the timing. On higher difficulties, reflexes aren't really a problem for her, though sometimes limitations on the way her body can move can be problematic, so she doesn't always get perfects, but well--she has been doing a lot of training, finding ways around this 'problem'.

She looks over her shoulder, missing Shirou's escape. Her rank appears on the machine and she can go again FOR FREE but she decides she'd rather chat it up. So she hops down and says.

"Ah, Hello, Friends. I Am Sorry. Have You Been Here Long?" She dips her head. "Pleased To See You Again." She's still in a more robotic state. All that work requires focus and she diverted her attention away from 'talk like hyooman' as a result.


Casey withholds her opinion of Aigis at the moment. Her robotic style Casey just simply chalks up to the 'girl' being out of breath and tired, the clunks of her hitting heavily, bigger than she looks, perhaps. She nods, curiously. "Hello." She says cheerfully enough to Aigis. However, something distracts her attention, but she shakes her head. No being distrated here.


Shirou goes off to play a shoot-em-up. Akatsuki watches him go, but otherwise says nothing to him beyond, "See you, Sekigawa-kun." Hmm. He glances at Fumiya when he agrees on Aigis busting a move--quite possibly busting a /groove/--but likewise says nothing; after all, there's no reason for him to act like he didn't know that Fumiya knows her.

All the same, Aigis gets off the machine and talks to them in Super Robot Mode, which is actually not nearly so awesome as the title would suggest. There are no random explosions in the background, for example, unless you count the ones on video screens.

"No, we just got here, Aigis," Akatsuki tells her, smiling. "I didn't know you played DDR." Though he isn't really surprised by that either; if you hang out with Hinata long enough, you probably end up playing it at *some* point. He gestures at Casey, then gestures back at the robot girl. "This is Casey Coburne. Casey, this is Aigis. Aigis, you already know Watanabe-kun."


Fumiya shoots another grin at Shirou, though otherwise feels kinda bummed he ran off to go play those shooty games. He'd follow, but he's not particularly in the mood to be around games with a lot of gunplay. Who knows if he'll ever be.

"Yoooo Aigis-babe." He says as she steps off the game. "You're pretty good at that. I'll have to play you sometime." Some other day, perhaps, he might feel up to seeing how he would do against a robot. Aigis may have hit all the steps right, but it was a little... dispassionate. Like those videos of dudes playing through old video games with special emulators or whastever. Perfect, maybe, but kind of... sterile. So maybe Fumiya might have a chance to win the crowd with his showmanship. But it would take some preparation.

Oh yes. Hmmmm.

"You alright?" He asks the robogirl, picking up on her speech. "You sound..." Pause. "...tired?" It took him moment to think of how to phrase that, what with Casey being here and Fumiya not being sure the new babe was in the know on much of anything.


It's true, in terms of showmanship, Fumiya can definitely SHOW UP Aigis. Get it? Use of two shows. Sometimes the wit is just brilliant.

Aigis bobs her head to Casey, smiling at her. "Nice To Meet You, Casey-San. Akatsuki-Senpai is graduating from high school soon but I am glad to see he has more good friends." She looks over to Fumiya, her smile vanishing as a confused expression emerges on her face. "Ah?" She says, considers, and then adds, "Ah, my apologies. I will be more careful and not overexert myself next time."

"Are you...well?" She tilts her head at Fumiya.


Casey gives a polite bow to Aigis. "Enda-san is an acquantice, really, more than friendship, Aigis-san, but if we keep running into each other, we may very well become friends." Even though their bond of friendship was forged in New York. Not that anyone knows about that.

Yet.

Casey is fairly sure she's missed something between Fumiya and Aigis, but she'll wait, and ask later.


Akatsuki laughs a little. "It's as Casey says," he tells Aigis. "This is pretty much only the second time we've met. The first time was in Sumaru, when I was still running the charity kitchen." It's shut down by now; after all, the situation's calmed down and it's not necessary anymore. Still, while Casey looks to be a middle schooler, and changes are decent depending on where he goes to college that he won't see her again (unless it turns out she's a Persona-User), she seems like a nice enough girl. Who knows? Maybe they *will* become friends. He does glance at Fumiya when he remarks on Aigis sounding 'tired.' That's a pretty impressively delicate way of putting it. ...you know, for a guy wearing neon.


Fumiya nods at Aigis, and leaves it at that. the important thing is that Casey is none the wiser. Not that Fumiya is sure a normal person finding out Aigis was a robot would be as catastrophic as he thinks, but since it's something she doesn't seem to want to make widely known outside their little circle of psychic-ghost hunters it's probably for the best he helps keep it under wraps.

"Well I'm gonna go take a look around." Fumiya says, finally being drawn away by the siren song of 'humiliating other losers on dance/rhythym games'. There's more than DDR, those games where you have to wave your hands over and under sensors are pretty radical too. "I'll catch you all later dude and dudettes."

There, that's another odd new term to confuse Aigis.