2025-07-04: Interview of a Normal Girl
- Log: Interview of a Normal Girl
- Cast: Maya Amano, Yukari Takeba
- Where: Iwatodai Station
- OOC Date: July 04, 2025
- IC Date: June 05, 2012
- Summary: A reporter for Coolest Magazine flags down an every day normal teen girl for an article on Apathy Syndrome. It goes as well as can be expected.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
If you're not careful, it can be difficult to find Coolest's target audience during the school week. But sometimes, it was necessary. Like today. Editor-in-Chief Mizuno ordered Maya to put together a last-minute article for the next volume of Coolest. A work colleague had been sick and wasn't able to make the deadline. Normally, any extra work would be cycled through the entire crew so everyone had the opportunity to carry the load. But apparently, their editor was still unhappy and asked (demanded?) that Maya cover.
(Let's think positive!)
Fortunately, Maya knew better than anyone else at Kismat Publishing where and when to find teenagers when she was on a tight deadline!
IWATODAI STATION - AFTER SCHOOL
The days were quickly warming up and Maya Amano could feel beads of sweat starting to collect at the nape of her neck. The official start of summer was just a few weeks away, but it was already starting to feel like it. It wasn't just Maya who felt it, either. Plenty of students had shrugged off their jackets and sweaters on their way home. Maya spotted one such figure passing her now. Now was her chance!
"Maya Amano with Coolest!" she said in her cheeriest voice. "Do you have a few minutes for an interview on Apathy Syndrome?"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
The Monorail doors slid open, and despite being relatively short for a young woman, Yukari still has to crouch somewhat, and lean sideways to get out of the subway car without turning the bag so far at an angle that it smacks SEVERAL people.
Indeed - today she stands out.
Literally, because her Yumibukuro is almost two heads taller than she is, with the way it's wrapped - nearly vertical and currently unstrung.
"Sorry!" She says to the people she held up, as she sighs. "This is why I prefer to stand near the back... on days like this."
She doesn't like inconveniencing other people, as a matter of course, readjusting her Yumibukuro, and her other bag, she steps forward.
It was hot, it was sweaty, and she was hungry. She had to stay extra long because again the first years left early.
"Man I'm starving... maybe I could catch a snack before I head back..."
But- BUT! She was also watching her weight right now, and was DANGEROUSLY close to not being able to have a real dinner tonight.
Which is when, Maya pounced-! "Wha-huh!? Coolest? Really? No way-!"
Yukari's expression goes through a change of surprise, to excitement to...
... guarded caution in a space of a few seconds...! You see, she reads Coolest. It's a Magazine she has a subscription too, and one of her favorite.
So ordinarily she'd be VERY inclined to respond favorably to a reporter just hitting her up from them on the street.
But... APATHY SYNDROME? And her in particular? That's quite a coincidence...
Suddenly, she looks suspicious instead like she's worried this isn't what it looks like, "Can I see some credentials? It's pretty easy to just, you know - say that you work for Coolest, but... that's a pretty unusual topic for a teen magazine article..."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya fishes her Official Coolest ID out of her bag, complete with embossed holographic logo and official Coolest lanyard in blue. She usually only wears it in the office, but it's still good to have it on-hand for cases like these. She hands it over to Yukari for inspection.
"I know it probably seems like a pretty strange concept, but it's something that's impacting everybody. Most reporters are only interested in covering the adult perspective, but I think it's important to get the teen perspective, too."
Maya rubs the edge of her ear thoughtfully. "There's a lot of teenagers who don't feel comfortable talking about how they feel about it. It can be pretty difficult to admit to others that you're scared or worried. Reading about how other teens feel might make our readers feel less lonely. Some of them might even open up to their friends about it, too."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Yukari takes the ID, inspects it closely in her hands, turning it over. That is the logo, and that looks real official, but you know - she sees a lot of people coming out of those conventions with similar!
And she understands as soon as she asks she doesn't know what an official Press Pass looks like!
There's a moment where she wishes she had one of those new smartphones, where she could just look this sort of thing up online. Her flip phone is no good at that.
So instead she just stares as it awkwardly while Maya explains why she's writing this article, and there's a sigh, "I mean..."
Why did it have to be apathy syndrome? Why couldn't it be something on my favorite brands?
"... I guess? I mean... I don't really know how much help I can be. I don't really have any friends who have suffered from it. Not even... friend of a friend really..."
It is Coolest though...
"... but if you want, I don't mind answering your questions. Do you wanna go sit down somewhere? This bag kinda gets in the way..."
It's only then that she realizes she was so suspicious, that she didn't even introduce herself.
"Oh! The name's Takeba by the way, Yukari Takeba." As she sounds somewhat sheepish, "Sorry about that, Amano-san, you just took me a little off guard."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya nods and stuffs her badge back into her bag. If she's bothered by what Yukari said, it doesn't register on her face. "It's good to have a healthy suspicion of adults," she says with a smile as she leads the way to a nearby bench. "There's plenty of adults that can't be trusted out there!"
Maya sits down and fishes her phone out of her bag. It's _not_ a flip-phone -- it's one of the newer models, complete with a litany of apps that she uses both on-the-job and off. She opens up her recording app, but doesn't yet tap the record button.
"Is 'Yukari' okay for me to use in the article?" Maya asks, thinking of Ichika. "I can use an alias if you'd like."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Huh? That's well, not what most people would say... even if it's not like you're wrong or anything."
She says as she shifts her bag again, once they do make it to a bench, she stands the Yumibukuro up to lean against a bench, then settles in and places her bag on her lap.
She'd prefer both bags off the ground but, that's not practical with the size of the other...
As she does, Maya asks her a question and...
"Hmm." Her face looks torn, because part of her really wants to give it, because to have her name in Coolest sounds great but...
"Could we maybe use an alias... or pseudonym, or whatever? This is a pretty serious topic. Oh I know, how about Yuka?"
As she takes stock of the names of all the girls at Gekkoukan. "... Pretty sure we don't have any new first years named that... where someone could mistake it being about it them. Okay!" She sits up straighter, "Let's go with that. Anyway... what would you like to ask?"
Well, at least she's being more cooperative now.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya turns on her recorder. "Yuka," she says, for both the recording and for herself. "Do you remember your first exposure to someone with Apathy Syndrome? What happened? How did you feel?"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Yukari takes some time thinking that one through...
... the first time... the first time... why does part of her want to say ten years ago? But... its an innocuous enough question, and she's going to be anonymous...
...and it is Coolest...
"I think about three years ago. I was on my way back to my dorm - in middle school, when I saw this girl from my year. Just... standing there."
She tries to recall her face. "I don't think we'd exchanged more than three words with each other since the start of the year, but I knew her. She kept just... muttering something... then a fly landed on her face."
...
"She didn't even react. It was... disturbing I guess." She looks away, "Like something out of a horror film. I heard her parents pulled her out of school, and she never came back..."
She says rather softly, "... kinda regretted not getting to know her better, I guess. People only talked about it for like a week or two maybe? Then... it's like they forgot about her."
Her right hand rubs the bare part of her left arm self-consciously. "That always bothered me too."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
A shiver runs down her spine at Yukari's description. Now that she thinks about it, it creeped Maya out the first time she saw someone with Apathy Syndrome. But now, it was so normal that it didn't really bother her at all anymore. And _that_ bothered Maya.
"How is your school handling it when a student is diagnosed with Apathy Syndrome? Do they ever address it? Do they offer counseling?"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
The next question, she gives Maya a surprised look, "Um. How does any school handle it really?"
Yukari answers that question with a question to start. "They take them out of school... and if they recover, they come back... most don't."
It's not like she's trusting Maya to open up to her about any deep personal questions or something, but it being an interview under an alias feels anonymizing, somehow.
Like it's not really her, even when it is.
"Mostly it's swept under the rug. At least if they died while attending school there'd be an assembly or something... but mostly we don't ever really find out what happens to them... and even when we do, nobody really says anything. As for counseling..."
There's this, tiny little smirk like... it hadn't even occurred to her there is counseling.
"... I'm sure there's probably like a flyer up, or something, with hours. But who even has time for that? Even if you wanted it, how would you fit it in? Everyone's got homework, and clubs... and I'm pretty sure they don't stay late or open on Sundays and Holidays..."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya aches with sympathy for Yukari. As hard as adults like to say it's for them when they're interviewed, it has to be much harder for teens. With the high emotions that come with being a teenager, to the high expectations from parents -- there's a lot weighing hard on a teenager even without the threat of Apathy Syndrome hovering over them.
Maya was suddenly grateful that she didn't become aware of Apathy Syndrome until after she graduated high school.
"Do you think your school can be doing more?"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
It's a good thing Yukari is trying not to look at Maya right now. If she saw that look, she might interpret it as pity.
Anonymizing effect or not - she's not sure she'd be able to stand that. She's not some sad pity case after all.
There's actually a small laugh at that, "What? It's - so surprising you asked that."
She's not smiling a moment later though, "This isn't some hit piece for my school right?"
Still though, she gives it an attempt, not long after, "I mean what person thinks a school can't be doing more about anything... everything?"
There's this, shake of her head, "Yeah? Of course. But our school has got it pretty good, actually. I mean, you go down to Sumaru City and you see how they just - rolled the girl's reform school into Cuss High like it was no problem."
Looking down again, she says, "I wish everyone was doing more but - it's not like our teachers aren't human too. They're complaining about how stressed they are every day during lectures..."
There's not really anything anyone can do about Apathy Syndrome in her eyes... well, except maybe her and SEES. If they fight their hardest...
... then there'll be fewer cases. And if they can figure out what to do about the Dark Hour...
... then maybe there won't be anymore.
"I dunno what more there is to do, really?"
She says honestly, knowing that maybe there isn't any point in other solutions... when the real solution is... something they're trying to take care of.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maybe now's a good time to put the brakes on things. Just for a little bit. She turns off her recording app and sets her phone down on the bench between them.
"I think teenagers should be worrying about normal teenager things," she starts when she finally opens her mouth. "Just a few years ago, I'd probably be writing horoscopes or advice columns because that's what was at the top of our minds." Maya had been one of those kids back then. "Now, teenagers have a lot more to worry about."
Maya stretches her arms out in front of her and knits her fingers together. She gives her fingers a near inaudible crack.
"Adults should be responsible for getting to the bottom of this," Maya says, setting her hands back down on the bench. "But we're not. There doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency from anyone in charge. It feels like a lot of the time, people are so afraid of making a mistake that they don't really give it their all."
Maya turns to look at Yukari. "I might just be a journalist, but I'm going to do whatever I can, too. I might not be able to fix things myself, but I want to get as much info as I can to help everyone else. It doesn't need to be a cure or a solution. Even if I can just get someone to deal with what's going on, I want to do it. Even if I might mess up along the way."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Maya notably turning off the recording app gets a look from Yukari, like she's not sure what's going on here.
Is she turning it off because this is 'Off the Record' or because she wants Yukari to think it is? In the end she at least decides...
"... I mean, we do that too." Yukari answers her, "It's not like we're forgetting about finals because Apathy Syndrome exists. If there's nothing you can do about it then... what choice do you have but to keep moving?"
She sighs lightly, but then says, "I check my horoscope every now and then. It's fun I guess - too much and maybe it gets depressing when it promises good things that definitely aren't coming. Geez... I'm not trying to be a downer."
This is why she doesn't talk about serious subjects. If it's Yuka, and not her, then Yukari can at least be removed from the equation.
And Maya Amano can remain just - a stranger, who doesn't know who she is. As Maya cracks her fingers, she looks at her with a strange, wondering look...
... that was a little too pointed, wasn't it? That statement? Now her guard is up more again, she's being more cautious.
"I mean I'm sure there are experts, studies... I guess I just don't expect much from them. It's been years...? And they still don't know a thing about it."
And she knows why, but she's doing her hardest not to slip up and indicate she does. THAT would be a disaster.
As Maya smiles at her, Yukari looks back her way, and can't find a smile back, she turns forward, and shakes her head.
"I mean - I think... you want to think that. Everyone does. To think maybe they're a small part of fixing the big problems. But, even this article? I like your magazine... but, most people are gonna blow right past it. They don't... wanna think about things that don't affect them personally."
There's a small shrug of her shoulders, "That's just how it is really. And well - even if I'm wrong..."
There's a distinct pause and...
"... well, I just don't think you'll be able to find someone who can help with this."
A beat and...
"Ugh, like I said before..." She doesn't repeat it, but she's not trying to be a downer, "... Maybe edit everything I said out? No one is going to want to read this."
This. These words she said. When things get too real - it just becomes a pity party. This is why she doesn't talk about herself ever - or anything serious.
She starts moving her bag as if she's making ready to stand up, "Maybe... pick a fun article that people can distract themselves with next time. They'll read that."
Yukari herself would read this kind of article though... but she can't say that right now, because... she knows she's not normal.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya was go going to have to give this some real thought later. She picked up her phone and hit the trash can icon. Another tap and the recording was removed completely.
"Before you go... do you think you can tell me what kind of article you'd like to read?"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Yukari has finished picking up her bag and getting up. She didn't actually see Maya hit the icon, not really.
She hasn't yet picked up the other bag though... as Maya asks that question. Yukari stops though, to think on it.
"Well I dunno... something normal? That's what most girls my age are looking for, right?"
As if... Yukari herself were normal.
But she's not. She knows it.
She's interacted with other girls who've lost family young. And many people do grieve, sure... but eventually they move on.
There are five stages - and everyone gets to acceptance one day.
Except for her, apparently. She just keeps cycling back through four of them... never quite reaching the fifth.
It's like she says, everyone moves on from their classmates disappearing from Apathy Syndrome some day and doesn't think about them anymore...
... that's what normal is.
"Well, nice meeting you Amano-san. Wish I could have been more helpful. I guess- I'll check for your name on the articles going forward? Then I can be like 'Oh hey, I remember her."
She picks up her other bag, and starts shouldering it. "I bet you write all kinds of other stuff I'd like to read."
Even now, she can't admit that if she read this article... she'd be thinking about it for months to come.