2025-07-06: Bad People At The Shrine
- Log: Bad People At The Shrine
- Cast: Minato Arisato, Ichika Kawase
- Where: Nagnaki Shrine
- OOC Date: 2025-07-06
- IC Date: Tuesday, June 05 2012
- Summary: Maiko plays with Minato at the Naganaki Shrine, and reveals to him why she doesn't like it at home: her parents are getting a 'divorce'. But someone was eavesdropping on his social link, and the dreaded sukeban Ichika steps in once she's gone home in order to learn more about Minato, too.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Maiko Oohashi is a nine-year-old girl with tragically little parental supervision, thanks to both of her parents working. She often spends time at Naganaki Shrine's playground so she has something to do, and after Minato brought her some nice food to eat, he's occasionally found himself looking out for her while she does so.
Which means: playing with her!
Today, though... Maiko doesn't want to go home.
"You know," she pouts, grasping the straps of a backpack too heavy for her young frame, "my mom and dad... all they do is fight. And... just the other day..." She looks down, away from the boy with his hands in his pockets watching her quietly. "They said they were getting a divorce," Maiko says, her voice trembling with the uncertainty of it. "I told them not to, but they won't listen. They probably don't care about me."
"..." Minato says, with an absent expression, as he waits for her to continue.
"..." Maiko sighs, in turn.
She smiles -- or perhaps makes herself smile -- as she looks up to Minato again. "Hey, you'll play with me again later, right? We're friends now!"
"Understood," Minato says, with a nod. "We'll play again later."
Later, he says, and Maiko huffs out another sigh as she gets it. "You have to come see me, okay?" She asks, again, pointedly.
"I will." Minato accepts this order, gravely.
"Then..." Maiko looks back, at the stairs leading up to the shrine. She doesn't particularly want to go home, but she knows she has to go home while it's still the afternoon. She's too young to travel at night. "I'll see you then!!" She smiles, and runs off.
Minato watches her go.
"..."
A little girl is counting on him. He'll execute the mission flawlessly.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Among delinquent habits, loitering is popular. Vandalism is well-known. But one is often forgotten: eavesdropping.
But Ichika hasn't forgotten it. For this reason, as she was approaching the stairs to the shrine, she paused when she heard voices. Then, she stayed paused, because having moved would reveal her having listened in on a very personal conversation indeed. She stops short, instead, and finds her heart strings tugged painfully by what Maiko says.
But they're friends. And...
Maiko runs off, but Ichika is still there, by the stairs, having made herself stuck. ...The most graceful thing to do would just be to leave. But... she'd wanted to visit the shrine...
So, this is what happens: a girl in a modified Kasugayama High uniform steps out in front of the stairs, and looks in the direction Maiko went. Her skirt is dangerously long. Her midriff is bare. And her hair is long and bleached. It's...
Ichika Kawase. She turns back toward the shrine's steps, and looks up to the top of them. She looks directly at Minato.
"..." She will make eye contact. She will burn her gaze upward. And--
"...You're a really kind guy," Ichika says, and in her tone, it sounds like a complaint. She glances to the side, and her expression isn't angry, exactly. It's embarrassed.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
There's a DELINQUENT at the shrine! Maiko blinks her big eyes at her, as she passes, staring for a moment. "I like your hair," she says, and continues on her way back home.
The latchkey child may never know... how close she was to certain destruction.
For that -- was a SUKEBAN!!
Minato watches, from the top of the stairs, his hands shoved in his pockets, as this terrible truth is revealed to him. A delinquent at the shrine...
No, that delinquent, at the shrine.
It doesn't bother him.
He meets her gaze, and all her burning embers meet the long-cooled silence of his. ... he burned up ten years ago. There's nothing left to catch fire, any more.
"... sure," he accepts her evaluation, without any pushback or excitement. It's just a fact about him, now it's been spoken into the world. He's rolling with it.
He lifts a hand, from his pocket, in something approximating a wave. "Hey, Kawase-san." The older sister... of the girl who entered their dorm, not long ago.
He wonders if she was trying to visit the dorms and see her.
He doesn't wonder enough to offer directions of his own volition.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Thanks," Ichika says as Maiko stares at her.
But then she's looking at Minato. She notices that he doesn't seem to have much of any reaction. She's not sure if that's frustrating or attractive, in the moment. It's too tough to tell.
But he waves. He remembers her name. That's nice. "Arisato-san," she greets in turn. She wasn't trying to find their dorm, this time. Instead, she starts up the stairs, a little awkwardly because he's just standing there... so she fills the space between them with words.
"...it's not like I was trying to listen in," she clarifies first. "But not everybody would look after her like that."
Step. Step. Step.
"..."
"...Most guys aren't that good with kids," she finishes.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Minato observes Ichika's awkwardness, as she makes her way up the stairs. This is a complete sentence. We'll come back to it.
"... she hangs out here all the time," Minato says, first. "She asked if I was a bad person. When I said I was, she said she'd never met one before. Then she said she really wanted something to eat... couldn't leave her hungry. Next thing I knew, she decided we were friends. ... I guess not many kids come here. Wouldn't be right not to look out for her."
All this, he delivers quite dispassionately...
As he stares at Ichika stepping up and up and up...
Aaannnd...
Okay, now he's realised it's awkward for her. She's most of the way up the stairs by the time he steps back and away, leaning on the other side of the fence instead.
"Divorce is hard on a kid," he says, as if it's a distant, objective fact which doesn't touch him at all.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Minato explains. Ichika listens. "...You said you were a bad person," Ichika repeats dubiously, with absolutely no self-reflection whatsoever. "..."
But the rest of the explanation comes and Ichika could at this point decide that Minato is a pushover and not worry about it. Instead, she takes some internal distress about the fact that he's gone from 'cute guy' to 'very cute guy' in her estimation, having proven the sort of person he seems to be.
"It wouldn't," she agrees. "So you do."
And that seems to say enough, for her.
When he steps back and away, she feels a little less awkward, and as she trudges the rest of the way up, she hears his distant statement.
"...Yeah," Ichika agrees. It's hard. She hasn't experienced it either, but...
"..."
It's still personal, somehow. And Ichika isn't entirely sure how to undo that tension. But she'll be at the top in a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Yeah," Minato says. "It was funny."
What a weird sense of humour. It would make sense if he'd employ that horrible joke on a kid and then abandon her, and it would make sense if he'd reassured the kid and then supported her, but what's with making a horrible joke a kid is definitely not going to understand and then supporting her???
Did he feel bad about it, or something...?
He doesn't say anything to that effect, though.
He leans on the stone fence, looking sidelong to Ichika. He is silent, for a long moment.
Then: "Still in your uniform today."
That's what he noticed about her?!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"...?" Ichika hears that, and it's definitely weird. She can't even guess at why it would go both directions at once, but she does spend a few moments trying to puzzle it out. She looks back at him for a moment. "...I guess," she allows. It wouldn't be funny if she said it. It'd just be kind of true, to her mind.
Maybe it's funny when you're like that.
That awkward silence stretches on for Ichika, until--
That's what he noticed.
"Yes," Ichika answers, and comes around, standing near Minato but turning to look at the shrine itself for a moment instead. "...I didn't feel like going back to the dorm to change today." A pause. "But you don't usually go back and change before you go out, either, right?" This is the second time she's seen him in uniform after school, after all.
"People treat you differently," she says, and presumably she means 'when you're in uniform'. "...Sometimes it's easier when you don't pretend you're something you're not."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
How is it not funny to say you're a bad person when someone asks if you are? Sure, Minato might not have laughed at his joke, but that doesn't mean he didn't appreciate it. On the inside.
She didn't feel like changing, though... that makes sense. He nods, slightly.
And then, "Yeah."
Of course, people treat them differently depending on what uniform they're wearing, too. He's worn a couple of them, around here. The kinds of people that acknowledge you... they're different, huh?
But...
"I don't really care what I'm wearing," Minato admits, despite knowing the difference. "Clothes are clothes."
Which is, just -- SUCH a boy thing to say, isn't it?! There's a lot more to clothes than just clothes, Minato!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika could go up to the shrine. But she's talking to Minato now. That's a thing to be doing. And he seems to get it, at first... only to reveal that he definitely doesn't get it, and that breaks a lot of tension for Ichika outright. She actually laughs.
"Really?" she asks. "I guess you can say that because you're a guy. People treat you how they're going to treat you anyway, unless you put on something really out-there."
"But take this," she says, and gestures to herself. "What's the uniform say to you? ...To a lot of people, it says, 'stay away'. ...A long skirt's harder to take pictures up, too. But if it's not the cut of my uniform, it's what uniform it is," she says.
"...But," she says, "Even outside of uniform it says a lot. Who I want to talk to, who I don't want to talk to... Who I want to come and talk to me."
"...I mean, clothes aren't everything," she admits. "The cops hassle me whether I'm in uniform or not. But you get it, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Guess so," Minato allows, on the heels of Ichika's laughter and initial question. But he takes her appearance in, anyway, looking her over. Long skirt... midriff. Everything she's not supposed to have.
He shrugs, when Ichika asks what it says to her, with a noncommital noise. Luckily, she has an explanation!
It's about signalling other people, huh...
"I don't really get it," Minato admits. "Like, people treated me differently in a Shujin uniform, sure. But it sounds like you're not just talking about that. Seems like it's more trouble if you're a girl."
... he at least has enough insight to recognise that Ichika's experience of clothes affecting her day might be different to his. Then again, she just said it, right? He can dismiss the whole concept because he's a guy.
Then... is he just agreeing with her, or is he empathising with her?
He doesn't explain that, either.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Is he agreeing, or just kind of going with it? ...Ichika's not entirely sure, but he kind of makes her want to give him an opinion. When he looks, she doesn't shy away. She turns slightly, one way and then the next, to ensure he can see properly.
"Hmmm," Ichika reflects. "That's right. I am talking about more than that... Though that's part of it, too. Does that mean you went to Shujin for a while?" she wonders. "...I wasn't always at Kasugayama, either."
She can't tell what he's doing, but she can certainly project her own preconceptions on him. That's a good thing to do with a boy, right?
"It is. How we look... it determines a lot more about our lives." A pause. "...It's not the kind of thing I really talked about with my brother either," she admits. "So it's not like having a sister means you'd know this stuff."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Yeah," Minato nods. "When I lived in the city. Just moved here at the start of term." Does that mean he moves around a lot? Or...
Man, this guy is an enigma!
"You too?" He asks, which might suggest he thinks moving is the natural reason to change schools.
Still... how they look determines more about girls' lives. He wonders what that means for Yukari, who always likes wearing pink.
"I wouldn't anyway," he says, shrugging a shoulder. "Only met up with Minako-chan again after we both moved here. Lived apart for years before that."
He said divorce was hard on a kid...
Did something happen to his family, too?
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Oh." Pause. Hmm. "How is it?" she wonders. "You hear things, but I've never been there myself."
He is an enigma! But a little mystery is fine. As to her, Ichika shakes her head. "I live in a dorm," she explains, "But my family's been here in Iwatodai for ten years. ...I got sent to Kasugayama because I'm trouble." But he said he thought trouble could be 'exciting', didn't he? So she doesn't sound too down on herself when she says it.
But he wouldn't... "Oh," she says. "I'm sorry. That must be hard."
Divorce... It's a natural enough assumption to make.
"I live in the dorms, but I still see my parents on weekends," she explains. "My sister sometimes, too. Though... she just moved into this new dorm, so I don't know if that means we'll see more or less of her."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Weird," Minato says, of Shujin. Apparently, that's a complete sentence, too. "Heard it got better after those Phantom Thieves called Kamoshida-san out, though." He doesn't call him 'Kamoshida-sensei'. This is a subtle yet devastating diss.
But Ichika has family here... huh. So that's why she's around a lot. "Cool," is what he has to say about her being sent to Kasugayama.
And: "It doesn't bother me. Only lasted three years. And we never stayed with them long anyway."
He's... talking about his parents, right...?
Without stopping to explain that, he instead moves on to say: "Yeah. Kawase-san's in our dorm now. The girl's wing, anyway."
Ririka's dorm... is Minato's dorm?!
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"The Phantom Thieves, huh?" Ichika asks. "...I heard that," she recalls. "I hope it's true. Guys like that... It's good to see the people there get justice."
She does have family here, and he calls it cool. "Heh," Ichika answers. "I remember, you like excitement. I like that in a guy, too."
Pause. It only lasted three years, huh? "...Ah. Is that how it is?"
She doesn't quite get it. But since he moves on, "Oh, you..."
Pause. "You have a coed dorm?" she wonders. "Wow."
"...I dunno how I'd feel about that," she admits.
"...Oh, that reminds me. Let me give you my number this time. This definitely doesn't count as 'maybe later' like we said before, OK?"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Seems that way," Minato says. "Apparently, they wrote him all these threatening letters and posted them up around the school... not long after, he confessed in front of everyone and went to prison. But I don't know the details."
Still, he speaks of them pretty... well, not warmly, that would require him to have an ounce of warmth in his voice. But he does seem to think it's a good thing they took care of Kamoshida, after all the things he was doing came out. ... it was a real shock to realise it had gone that far, when he hadn't been paying that much attention to the volleyball team.
"Cool," he says, again, when Ichika remembers.
But when she wonders if that's how it is, he just nods.
It's not until she's surprised to hear about the co-ed dorm that he turns to her. "We sleep in separate areas," he says. "But there's a common room at the bottom. Kirijo-senpai would kill us if we went up the girl's stairs." He delivers this statement with complete seriousness. It's impossible to tell whether he's joking, or just relating a fact.
He watches her, for a moment, and then pulls out his phone.
"Sure."
Tap tap tap, in go the numbers... does he even get her implications, though?
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Huh..." Threatening letters, and it worked? "Maybe I'll look into it," she says. "...Sounds like a good story." She's not sure how she feels about it, other than the possibility that maybe a guy like that actually faced justice.
"Ah," she says. Separate areas. "Well, that makes sense." Kirijo-senpai... Hm. "Wow. You're in the dorm with her, too?" Ichika wonders. "I guess that tracks. Not like our dorms. We've only got girls, but sneaking in boys is pretty much nothing."
Phone!! Does he get it? Well, maybe, maybe not.
Ichika smiles though. "I'm looking forward to it," she says. "And..."
"I hope things go OK with that kid. ...I'm gonna go see the shrine."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Yeah," Minato says. "A good story."
And speaking of good stories: the Iwatodai Dorms. "Yeah," Minato nods, when Ichika recognises Mitsuru. "So don't worry about Kawase-san." In a co-ed dorm, presumably. But she's defended by the very Queen of Gekkoukan, so she's bound to be fine, right?
... just because Ichika sneaks boys into her dorm doesn't necessarily mean she feels the same way about boys in Ririka's dorm.
"Sure," Minato nods, when she looks forward to it, and looks to the shrine. (Will things go okay with Maiko? Fate will tell.) He pushes off of the fence, and lifts his hand in another lazy wave, as he starts ambling down the stairs. "Later."
Visiting the shrine is something you do alone.