2025-07-30: Thinking Cap
- Cutscene: Thinking Cap
- Cast: Akari Hoshi
- Where: Shibuya (mostly)
- OOC Date: 2025-07-30
- IC Date: Sunday, June 17 2012 (mostly)
- Summary: Akari goes hunting.
It had all sounded clever to Akari while she was in the Cardboard Dragon, like some kind of brilliant plan.
Junya Kaneshiro, Yakuza guy, was a bad man. No, it needed more emphasis than that: he was a Bad Man. She still remembered the words from the Cardboard Dragon:
'We're not playing games today.'
'They're obviously pretty shady.'
'You keep spitting that kind of trash at your betters, and I'll find something to fill that mouth with.' 'The curb?' 'That might work.'
'Shut your mouth. Or I'll shut it for you.'
'Maybe get her some crayons, while us adults talk business.'
'He's like... the tax collector! Sent by the foul king! Except he's not noble, or even a chivalrous rebel who gives to the poor, just a bandit!'
'He's a bandit. But he's the type that wouldn't think twice about leaving you in a shallow ditch.'
'Maybe I'll go see some Palaces while I'm at it. Anyone want to come with me? We can be like what Baronette Lune said -- like a band of Merry men.'
And at the time, it had been clear to her: This was a man as bad as any demon. And she'd gotten fired up, because it had just been like she'd dreamed about when she first found the Dark Side of Sumaru! Akari never posted there, but she certainly read it, and, well...
It had sounded like Rumourmonger Merry was Spreading A Rumour. Or giving advice? But it had given Akari an idea. What if...
...What if she went? What if she did something? Was this how the Phantom Thieves did it?, she wondered. Finding a Palace and... well, she didn't know the next step because she'd never been there. Maybe beating up the demons inside? She could do that. She could be her own knight in shining armour, and a bunch of other people's, even if they never knew. A secret hero in the darkness...
Finally! She could be as cool as they were...!
So she'd gone to the Dark Side of Sumaru, and the Phan-Site. She'd taken notes. She'd paid more attention to it than the actual homework she was supposed to be doing, but her parents didn't know the difference; she clearly wasn't messing with her art while she was on the computer so they thought she was actually behaving for a change. But all she'd gotten was rumours and bits of information. She'd need to actually find a Palace. Like, with her feet. And she barely knew where to start. She'd have to wait for Sunday to get a free day.
"This sucks," Akari moaned to herself, rolling over on her bed to end up flopped on her back. "I'm gonna need my thinking hat and everything."
SUNDAY, JUNE 17
Akari got off the train and walked out of the Shibuya station. Why Shibuya? Because Kaneshiro had said he wanted to expand out of it, which means this was his home base, which means this is where he'd put a Palace. Obviously.
"All right!" she said to herself. "Off I go!" She reached up and planted -
Okay. When Akari said she needed her thinking hat she wasn't kidding.
Akari adjusted her hat. A fore-and-aft hat (no earflaps), better known as Sherlock Holmes' hat, but in a solid colour rather than patterned. A monocle went with it, which she very carefully got into place, tucking its attached cord behind her ear. It was supposed to go with an entire costume, but it was frankly too hot for that today, which means with her hat Akari was wearing shorts and a shirt with a shooting star across the chest. She got looks on her way out of the station, as she had the whole way down on the train. Strange looks bounced off Akari. She knew she'd stand out no matter what she did so she'd made it her own. She never really minded - if she'd had her whole costume on she would have been pleased to have it appreciated, but in just the hat and monocle she looked more like someone having a confused fashion day than anything else.
And the hat really did help. Sometimes... sometimes she did better when she didn't have to be plain old Akari Hoshi. It wasn't that she minded being Akari; she'd never really wanted to be anyone else. Mostly, anyway - but that other person was Akari too, just different. But sometimes it helped to ... take a different role. To remind herself to think differently; to focus her imagination instead of getting distracted every time she saw something she wanted to draw or had an idea, which she had all the time, or sometimes just because. And the props helped. She was still Akari, but she was focused Akari. Akari with a purpose.
Hence, the hat.
Akari pulled out her phone, looked around to make sure nobody was peeking over her shoulder, and opened up the Meta-Nav. She'd played around with it a little; she'd found Mementos, which is how she knew it worked. But she'd never really tried to find anything deliberately, definitely not a Palace. With her other hand, she pulled out her small notepad - not a sketchbook for a change. The first few pages were already full of notes taken from the Phan-Site and the Dark Side of Sumaru. She read them again, nodded to herself, pocketed the notepad, and started to type on her phone while walking through the streets semi-aimlessly:
> YAKUZA BOSS JUNYA KANESHIRO
> SHIBUYA
Akari paused for a moment before shrugging. Why start complicated?
> PALACE
No hit.
A few moments later, a couple more:
> YAKUZA HEADQUARTERS
> EVIL TAX COLLECTOR PLACE
> DRAMATIC FINAL BOSS SHOWDOWN HIDEOUT
She hesitated on a couple of those, but it cost her nothing to try it anyway. But the hat reminded her she should probably guess a little more seriously.
> BANDIT LAIR
> THIEVES' DEN
> MOUNT LIANG
"Wait, no, that one's the good guys," Akari says out loud, hastily deleting it.
...She was going to be at this for a while. But that's why she had all day.