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The Amagi Challenge
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/========================( - Inaba - Yasogami HS - )=========================\
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| Yasogami is the largest high school in all of Inaba, and is the most |
| popular place for parents to send their children due to its size and local |
| proximity to one of the larger residential zones, although its student body |
| collectively hails from all over town. That said, in a town as small as |
| Inaba, the student body is not as large as one would typically find in the |
| city. Most students know one another by name, even if they know nothing else |
| about them. |
| The main building is divided into three floors of three classrooms each, |
| though rooms fulfilling other purposes, such as the teacher's lounge, are |
| also tucked along somewhere in the three hallways. The higher the floor, the |
| more senior the students, with the first-years on the ground floor and the |
| third-years on top. All three floors are connected by a staircase that also |
| leads up to the roof, with the second and third floors featuring a balcony |
| in which to overlook the lower floors. Neutral tones of brown and grey give |
| a somewhat rustic atmosphere to the hallways, especially pronounced during |
| sunny afternoons. |
| As the student body is not that large, hallways are rarely crowded even |
| with the number of students that seem to spend all their time loitering |
| about specific places of the campus day after day. The library on the second |
| floor proves popular on rainy days, as the pattering of rain against the |
| windows is believed to have a positive effect on one's focus towards their |
| studies. |
|===============================( - Players - )================================|
| Yukiko Amagi [KDA] <Konohana Sakuya> |
|===============================( - Objects - )================================|
|================================( - Exits - )=================================|
| Practice Building <P>: Yasogami HS - Practice Bldg. |
| Roof <R>: Yasogami HS - Roof |
| Out <O>: Inaba |
\============================================================================/
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Lunchtime, at Yasogami High.
The school was bustling as always, and especially the lunch room at this hour, the rows of tables filled with students of all kinds. The official school lunch, for those who did not bring anything, was rice and fish - a little simple, but sometimes, the simple things are what made the world go around. Yukiko, however, had not had to buy lunch for herself in some time. At the Inn, the cooks would often make a bento for her, and that is what Yukiko had set on the table before herself.
What was perhaps annoying about the well-made bento? Yukiko was barely eating it. Avoiding the meat that she had in it, she was picking slowly at the rice, her eyes a bit faraway in thought. And where was Chie? No where to be found, evidently - another rare thing for the two friends.
A man cannot live on fish alone. Fumiya rarely has a bento with him as he's no good at making them and his Grandparents don't have the time. He can get whatever lunch the school offers, but he'd rather something with more protein. But no, today it's fish. Maybe he'll hit Aiya later and try their endless beef bowl.
As he dodges the various students while weaving through the tables, he spots Yukiko sitting mysteriously alone. That's weird, since he usually sees her with Satonaka. Or there would at least be a desperate male suitor hovering nearby. With a shrug he invites himself to the nearby seat, probably claiming the desperate suitor position for himself today.
"Hey Yukiko-babe, why the long face?" He asks as he sets his meal down, and then himself into his chair with a bit of a thud. He's still favoring one side a bit, but he's not letting it show that his foot is still bothering him. "You seem kinda distant, or something like that."
There had been a fair few desperate male suitors as of late. On the surface, Yukiko seemed to be far too polite a young woman to even acknowledge some of their nervous flirting - Yukiko fans believed that was because she was trying to help preserve the ego of the flirter not by turning them down publically, but pretending it never happened. The truth, as some had been able to guess at, was that Yukiko did not even recognize that she was being flirted with. The poems that she got in her shoebox were just lovely poems that some students must have put in there for her to review (why they did not sign them was beyond her), and so on and so forth.
Regardless - there was no desperate suitor today - but as Fumiya sets himself down, focus returns to Yukiko's eyes, and she glances at him - wide-eyed at first, like an owl catching sight of a mouse, but after a moment, she seems to relax, and a subtle smile touches the corners of her lips. "I'm... I'm sorry, Watanabe-san?" Yukiko asks at first, an expression of thought touching her features as she plucks up a bit more rice to shovel into her mouth.
The explanation that follows brings understanding to her face, "Oh! I um... I'm just thinking about things. Do you know what happened, um... Sunday?" Yukiko asks, glancing towards the door, then over the room, as if she were looking for eavesdroppers. It was also possibly the most suspicious thing she could do. She follows that question up with, "How is your foot?" There had been a 'get well card' in the mail, signed by the pair. Whether or not Fumiya had received it was up to the post office gods. But it had a babboon with a cast on, and a light-hearted joke about 'Stop monkeying around, and get better quick!'.
Yukiko had thought it was hilarious.
By now Fumiya has gotten a clue of Yukiko's true nature when it comes to the flirters. Her utter cluelessness is kinda endearing, but man... it must be frustrating for those poor dudes. Maybe someday she'll be ready to find her hot stud.
However when Yukiko explains her distant expression it's Fumiya's turn to look clueless. "Uh.. Sunday?" He pauses just as he was lifting some fish up to his mouth. "Something happened Sunday?" He's been out of the loop for too long. As soon as he recovered he started to hear all this stuff about keys and whatnot. Truthfully he's been keeping his distance since the whole thing has gotten way over his head. It might not be the most diligent approach to his KDA affiliation, but hey... that crap's confusing.
"Oh, uh yeah. My foot's just fine. Solid as a rock." He slams said foot down on the floor th demonstrate and immediately has to fight to keep a grimace off his face. Nope. No pain at all. It's just fine. Honest. He shakes the pain off, coughing to hide it. "Oh, uh, thanks for the card too. It's always good for a dude to know there's a babe or two out there somewhere thinking about him." He winks.
Perhaps someday. But at the moment, she was more concerned with grades, working, studying - and getting the heck out of Inaba, than boys.
Yukiko's expression flickers when Fumiya expresses his own cluelessness about Sunday. The whole key thing had gone way over her head as well - her parents had kept her at the inn double during those weeks, so she had little idea, other than the KDA forum, on just what was going on with the keys. "W-well, Katsuragi-dono and Chie and a couple others..." Yukiko begins, a little frown playing over her expression. Lowering her voice, she leans in towards Fumiya, as if sharing a secret - and she kinda was.
One imagines that Fumiya was getting a few envious glances from some of the Amagi Challenge participants at this juncture. "... there's a monster in the mine tunnels outside of town. I... well... some people think we killed it, but I don't think it is dead," Yukiko says, rising up to a more natural sit.
The foot stamp and otherwise leaves naught but a neutral expression on her face. She hid that grimace, so he must be telling the truth! "You are welcome - it must have been a bit lonely, and that is what, um... well, we're all friends now, right? In the KDA?" she asks, sounding a little hopeful.
Girls just about always top Fumiya's list of priorities (followed distantly by 'Being Radical' and Sleeping) so it's not unusual for the opposite sex to usually be on his mind.
Huh, a monster in the mine tunnels? Was that what caused the earthquake? Maybe Fumiya HAS let himself get a little too behind on things. "Oh geez, wow. I had no idea." He says in an equally hushed tone. "Well, if you have a hunch it's still down there Yukiko-babe I'd be inclined to believe you." He has nothing to base that on, of course, but she seems like the type who has good hunches. Though it's also possible he's being overly agreeable due to his aforementioned interest in the ladies.
So his effort to hide his weakness and show how manly and awesome he is worked, apparently. Though the ache in his foot means he won't be trying it again. "Well, it was a little lonely. It sucks when you can't be surrounded by awesome people (awesome, beautiful, attractive, female people). Er... but yeah! We're all friends now! And more, even!" And by that he means their secret mindghost hobby. Of course.
Yukiko bites her lip, leaning forward towards Fumiya again - casting her eyes out over the student body in that super-suspicious way once more. Lowering her voice to a whisper again, (they were talking about the /ballgame/, kinda, and thus things had to be secret,) she says, "You know Koinose-san? She works at the bookstore. The monster is her /brother/," she says, in a vaguely excited tone. The secret agent stuff was exciting for her. But then she realizes just how she said what she has said, and her expression falls once again.
Leaning back up, she draws a hand up to brush a long lock of her hair over her shoulder, breathing out a sigh. "I do not think Koinase-san is taking it well, though - she was very fond of her brother," Yukiko says.
"You should have called or something. I am certain that we could have held a few meetings at your place, to keep you clued in, Watanabe-san," Yukiko says, although she pauses, "Although this whole... key thing," Yukiko says in a normal tone of voice, glancing around the table. No one /seemed/ to be paying attention to her, so she sheepishly adds, "W-well, I have no idea either."
Caution if Fumiya's middle name! But it's a name he never paid all that much attention to. Luckily Yukiko is handling the eavesdropping check for the both of them. "Koinose?" He asks, his head tilting. Of course he met her, but he can't immediately place the name to a face. It's not until Yukiko mentions the bookstore that his eyes light up. "Oh right, yeah..." And then she drops the bomb. "Her.... her /brother/?!" He asks, dumbfounded. "But how is that... I mean but why... that's even possible?!" Almost raising his voice, Fumiya shovels a bit more of his lunch into his mouth and tries to act non-chalant.
"How is it even possible they get this fish so good?!" He says in a slightly higher voice to throw off any listeners. Swish.
"Ok..." He says, his voice low again. "I can bet she was fond of her brother. But I don't get it, you've been saying 'monster' 'monster' over and over, so is it a shadow? We know people can turn into those."
"Oh, er, sorry. I guess I didn't wanna trouble anyone." More like he didn't want to let anyone see him feeling so miserable over a broken foot. "But I guess I'll keep my ear out for the whole key thing."
"I... don't know. But... it's bad, I'd rather not guess at what was happening there - it was... um... it was..." Yukiko mentions, forgetting to pick at her rice as she draws a hand up to twist a lock of her hair around her finger, over and over again, her expression pinching, "...spooky."
W-wow. That technique of throwing off listeners was /perfect/, and Yukiko listened in amazement; she totally filed that trick mentally away for future use. And why wait?!
"They didn't have fish this good at the ballgame!" she says, in a voice that was perhaps a bit too loud. Which drew more than a few glances.
Smiling like the cat that ate the canary, Yukiko picks up her chopsticks again, and eats just a bit of her meat. Normally, she just let Chie eat the rest, but Chie was off somewhere other than here. "I... um..." she says, that pleased little smile giving way to something a little more concerned. "...I don't know. It wasn't a shadow, I think... it was a person, or used to be," she says, with a bit further of a frown. "But... um... there was TV world fog there," she says, whispering, "So... it probably has something to do with it..."
Geez, Fumiya wasn't expecting to have more monsterous things than Shadows to worry about. It was just Shadows, Shadow-possessed, and Persona Users. And this thing was causing earthquakes? Scary.
Fumiya is among those giving her odd glances. "Uh, that's good Yukiko-babe. Keep practicing. It helps to make what you say out loud similar to what you just said quietly." But hey, now there's probably a bunch of Yukiko Challengers looking to figure out exactly what type of fish she likes.
Finally Yukiko tells a little more about the shadow-brother. "Wait... fog was down /there/? That makes even less sense." Weirdness. "Could those mines be connected to the TV World somehow? But .... wait no, that's just too impossible."
Argh! Too much thinking!
Don't feel too bad, Fumiya. Yukiko was having the same trouble processing all this, and Fumiya might be able to sense that from her demeanour.
Looking thoughtful at Fumiya's suggestion, Yukiko considers this for a moment, and nods her head once, "I'll um... try that out later," she says, a bit sheepishly, casting another glance about - which likely sends most of the other glances going back to their food or friends, as opposed to being caught eavesdropping on the two.
"I... don't have any answers. You should really ask Chie, or Sekigawa-san... they are both so clever when it comes to these sorts of things," Yukiko says, inclining her head towards Fumiya. "If you want to talk about it some more, we can after class? I think I need to get ready for my next one," Yukiko says towards Fumiya.
It seems Fumiya and Yukiko share a certain level of cluelessness when it comes to these things. Though it Yukiko's case it might be more being distracted. In Fumiya's case, it's more general laziness.
Fortunately for Yukiko, Fumiya doesn't push the distraction matter any further. Hopefully she got the idea.
Fumiya might be more inclined to ask Shirou. Not that he doesn't think Chie would have useful insight, but he's not entirely convinced about the whole 'clever' bit. Not that he'd say it to her face. He's seen what she's done to Yosuke. He's not going to set himself up for a Trial of the Dragon.
"After class? Well, maybe another time. I had to run a few errands for my grandparents." Not something he was looking forward to with his hurting (..I mean, totally awesome and fine) foot. "We'll chat about it another day."
Finishing his lunch, Fumiya excuses himself from the table. "Better hit class. Catch ya later, Yukiko-babe."
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