2025-08-03: Isolation
- Log: Isolation
- Cast: Yukari Takeba, Reiya Aomori, Beniho Igarashi
- Where: Gekkoukan High School, Tatsumi Port Island
- OOC Date: August 03, 2025
- IC Date: June 20, 2012
- Summary: Yukari hears out a clubmate's feelings--until the object of those feelings shows up. Yukari and Reiya have a talk then.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Yukari Takeba steps out of the girl's locker room near the gym, and she's not alone. "... Sorry it was kind of a drag today. Our senpais are kinda checked out this year, aren't they?"
The problem of the first years not picking up properly after practice became complicated by the third years leaving early with the excuse of 'entrance exams.'
This left the second years to do the lion's share of the work, Yukari and Beniho included. They finally finished though, and have changed out of their Kyudo Archery uniform.
Which means for now, she's back in her summer uniform, a Cardigan around the waist. She's carrying her Yumibukuro, the bag for her bow because she noticed the tension was a touch off today.
That means it's time to take it home and give it a thorough inspection.
"Ugh... such a hassle. You wanna go swing by Paulownia Mall before we head home? I hear Kenneth Arnold is having a sale today..."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"It's all right," Beniho Igarashi says to her clubmate Yukari. She's shorter than Yukari, a delicate 150cm (4'11"), with long brown hair and brown eyes. Her expression is usually a little anxious, but today she's just been sad when she hasn't been distracted. "Besides, we can handle it together." Even if their senpais are pretty checked out... The second years did do the lion's share of the work, and it served to distract Beniho for a while, and here she is sighing again.
She's in her uniform, too, mostly as regulation, but for a little purple.
"Sure," Beniho answers and--there it is--sighs. "A sale sounds nice..."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Is it though?
Yukari thinks, as she looks sideways at Beniho, studying her expression as Beniho talks to her.
"Well sure, but you know - they're supposed to be setting a good example for everyone else. How exactly are the first years gonna keep being responsible if even the third years are shirking them?"
It's maybe just small talk, chatter - she doesn't actually ask her what's wrong, even if she knows something is wrong.
But sometimes, engagement is just what people need when they're feeling down.
A sigh though, and-
Yeah something's wrong.
"Great! We can check out the latest album by Stereophony... and maybe sit down at Chagall after. How about a parfait, on me?"
It's a simple, good plan but... it's not going to break this funk... and eventually, Yukari sighs too.
"It's been a long two weeks for you, hasn't it? ... I know I'm not the best at relating to this sort of thing, but - if you want to vent to someone, I wouldn't mind."
There, simple, easy, safe. Give her someone to talk to, maybe she'll get over him faster.
In theory.
She hopes.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"Hmmm..." Beniho tries to be easygoing, but Yukari has a point. "That's true," she admits. "But what can we do? Maybe we can set the example." It is definitely chatter. But Beniho is having the same problem she's been having since she broke up with Reiya. And that is...
"Oh, that sounds really nice," Beniho answers, and almost manages to smile. Almost. But not quite.
Yukari offers a chance to vent. Beniho blinks up at her for a moment. "Oh, I..." She starts to say she couldn't, but hesitates, because actually it's a very good offer. "Kind of, yes," she answers. "...I admire how you can focus so much on things," Beniho admits. Yukari is excellent at the club, good in school...
"Well okay," Beniho says. "It's just--it's hard. Someone you spend all that time with... I still see him in the halls," she says gloomily. "I know I ended things, but I really miss him..."
"But I can't go back on what I said, either. ...But still, it was..."
"We were really serious," Beniho says quietly, glancing sidelong at Yukari as she starts to say something a little new. "I thought... this might really be it, you know?"
"...But he wouldn't even tell me what he wouldn't tell me. Does that make sense? It's like there was this whole part of him I couldn't..."
The engagement is helping. But being able to share her feelings may help more.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
If anything, small talk about other girl's problems is usually safe, especially when it's boyfriend problems.
Family problems she'd be less inclined to help with as they'd drive her nuts from jealousy.
"Well - most of the time I can. I guess I'm just kind of goal-oriented this year. ... Even more than usual."
It's true, as SEES had provided her with a new focus on what her goal truly was. And in order to be a part of SEES - to get closer to that goal, she had to be a pretty good student.
"... Yeahhhh." She sighs on that one, "I get that." After all, she still saw Ran around in the halls from time to time... even if that's different from a boyfriend.
"... Well it's hard, when it's someone you're really close to." She agrees, and definitely means that. "It couldn't have been easy on you to make that choice..."
But really serious? Yukari's eyes go a little wide, and there's a tiny blush, "Like serious... serious? Whoa." She puts a finger up near her chin, and there's a little motion of awkwardness, "I guess I didn't realize."
She doesn't know what it's like to be serious about a relationship, after all. "No. It does. And well..."
She trails off, having to think about that in light of her knowing more about his secret than Beniho and being unable to say a thing, but eventually she replies quietly, "... I wouldn't want to be anyone who couldn't put me first, you know? A guy who keeps a side of himself distant from you... means there's a part of him you could never know or understand. If you're going to be close to someone... you actually want to be close, right?"
Inserting a theoretical boyfriend is also easy enough for herself. After all... he's only theoretical. It's not like he's real.
To her at least... even if it is to Beniho.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Beniho doesn't talk as much about her own family. Maybe there are issues there, too.
"That's really good, though," Beniho says of being goal-oriented. "Maybe I should be more like that..." But as long as Yukari has known her, Beniho has been a head-in-the-clouds sort of girl. She's a dreamer, and while she works hard at archery and school, she's often thinking ahead to something new all the while.
Yukari gets it. "Mm," Beniho says, and is both glad of that and a little sad for Yukari. But she doesn't pry. ...Not just because Yukari is standoffish to a lot of people,but because she's still talking about Reiya, too.
"It was really hard," she agrees. And when Yukari's eyes go wide, Beniho blushes a little too, having gotten across her meaning. She nods shallowly. "Mm-hm. Don't tell anyone, okay? I don't want... people to get the wrong idea. But it's part of why it's hard..."
Look out, Yukari. Beniho is trusting you with a secret.
Beniho listens to Yukari's eventual reply. Then she nods. "Yeah... I thought... I thought that's where we were. Maybe not over his family, but... one day we might get there. Or might have, I guess..."
She nods. "But that's just it. I know... part of why I liked him in the first place is how he was mysterious. But it's because I got to see more of who he really was that I stayed with him. So finding out..."
She sighs. "I thought we were close. But when I asked he just said they 'weren't his secrets to tell.'"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Maybe...? Iiii dunno. It works for me, kind of - but I'm not sure if it's for everyone."
It's not her insulting Beniho actually, it's more her just not knowing if her way to live is... right, or healthy. In fact she's pretty sure it's wrong a lot of the time just - it's the way she needs to.
She can't let the world think anything bad of the father she loved. They have to know he was a great guy.
He didn't do anything wrong.
"Oh! Don't worry." Yukari says to telling anyone, "Your secret is safe, I'm not the type to spread things around like that, you know?"
And it's true - her reputation is pretty solid in that respect amongst other girls. She'll talk with other girls about their problems, but won't engage in gossip that spreads other's secrets around.
That doesn't mean she can't be mean sometimes on the subject... but...
... she's really fixated on him, isn't she? Yukari can't even be upset like that - she'd be a huge hypocrite. It's just... family is different than a boyfriend!
You only have one Father. Her Mom - how many boyfriends has she had?
It's different.
"Sorta like you're... special enough to be privy to the mystery? Yeah... that makes sense."
It sucks in one respect, that Yukari kinda is, but on the other hand - if she just told Beniho... then wouldn't she be proving that she can't be trusted with Beniho's secrets?
And besides!? Who would believe her.
"Iiiii don't think it should matter, personally. His secrets to tell or not... if you mean that much to someone... they shouldn't get in the way of it, right?"
Her Dad had secrets - but he told her, didn't he? Even if it was ten years later... that too, is different.
"It sounds like he made his choice and that just forced you to make yours."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"Hmmm... I guess that's just as well," Beniho says. "I couldn't be you any more than you could be me. That's how people are, isn't it...?"
But Yukari will keep her secret. Beniho smiles in some relief--and believes her that she won't tell.
She is pretty fixated. But then... The way she's talking, she was thinking in terms of family, too. She thought their relationship was serious enough to last.
"Yes," Beniho answers when Yukari suggests the specialness. "It was nice. ...Knowing that nobody else got to get to know him like that."
Yukari isn't in a position to make Beniho believe, really. But--it doesn't matter, she says. "That's... what I thought," she says. "That I could keep his secrets, too. ...Maybe I just pushed too hard. Maybe it would've been better later..."
A sigh. She starts to say something else but--
"Oh!" she stops short, and Yukari didn't hear him coming. "Reiya-kun..."
Reiya's there, all right, in uniform, standing a little ways away, turned to face Beniho and Yukari.
"...Hello," he answers.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"... Yeah." She agrees, but-
As she goes on about him. How she might have pushed him too hard-
"I dunno. It couldn't have been an easy decision for-"
Pause.
"Aomori-san." Yukari says, trying to be as neutral as she can, but there's the feeling of a temperature drop in the air.
"You're here late... and the Drama Club doesn't meet today, right?"
It's an implication that he might be following Beniho or her around, because - that's a thing he has skills for right?
And he has no other reason to be around.
"Beniho-chan and I were just leaving." She remarks, because girl code.
She's hardly going to leave her to deal with her Ex alone unless she makes it explicitly clear that's what she wants.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
It wasn't an easy decision! But whatever Yukari might've said gets lost. Beniho feels the temperature drop too, and she looks much gloomier all of a sudden--though there's a silent pleading in her expression to Yukari.
Be nice, maybe?
But Reiya just looks at Beniho for a long few moments. "..." Yukari's words do get him to answer though, "Yes. I was on an errand." For the Chairman, probably. That's a thing Reiya does. However...
He doesn't rise to the bait of the implication. If he even notices it. Does he notice it?
"I see," he says. Yukari might detect some disappointment. But it's not easy.
Beniho opens her mouth and closes it and says, "A-actually Yukari-chan, I... I realized I... have something to do! Alone."
The pleading look is different this time; she's asking Yukari to tank him for her while she flees.
"Um, take care, Reiya-kun... Yukari-chan..."
She scurries.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Maybe she feels Beniho pleading for her to be nice. She's not exactly feeling nice though.
"Oh yeah? Funny it took you down this hall." Yukari responds to the idea that he was on an errand.
More implications.
Before...
Beniho says she's got something to do, alone, "Wha-Beniho-chan? Uh... sure, okay." Her eyes are now upon Reiya again as Beniho departs, even if she's talking to her.
"... Take care."
She just stares at him for a while, waiting for there to be distance - and then a glance to make sure no one else is about... then breaks her silence probably a good fifteen seconds later.
"So. Did you get permission before I found out - or was that just implied?"
Yukari asks him, in public... though to be fair, she's not saying what it was. "Kinda awkward that I know what's going on. But she can't know."
And then her eyes slide sideways down the hall, "...Guess that makes me closer to you than your own ex-girlfriend."
It's not an especially nice remark in light of Beniho's request and what she just found out, but 'be nice'? She's not feeling especially nice today.
"Not that I wanna be."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
Implications. Reiya stares back impassively at Yukari before he looks to Beniho instead. But she leaves. His gaze follows, but only for a few more moments, before his attention tracks to Yukari again. There are a good few seconds, and Reiya doesn't break the silence any faster.
"And what have you 'found out'?" Reiya wonders. "Exactly."
A pause. It's in public. So of course she can't say. He shakes his head.
She calls it awkward. Still, "And you haven't told her either," he points out.
A frown--a sharp frown, at the idea that Yukari is closer to him than Beniho was. "Do you really think so?"
But Beniho clearly wanted to get some distance in, so...
"I wouldn't think you'd be able to tell," he says then, feeling not very nice himself. The implication is clear; Yukari doesn't know what closeness is in the first place. But instead of saying that aloud, he shakes his head. "Regardless."
"If you're out to cause trouble, then we're going to have a problem eventually."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"That'd be real convenient to you if I just came out and said it - huh?"
Yukari answers in a dry tone, like she's not exactly impressed by it. After all actually saying it could be seen as some form of entrapment.
She said something very secret openly, she can't be trusted. But no, what she said was quite vague.
"Oh it wasn't my secret to tell." She says pointedly, "It was yours. What, you think you're going to claim I'm a hypocrite here? Get real. It's not the same situation."
After all, they're Archery Clubmates, and she thought she was going to marry him.
And she crosses her arms right then and there at his implication that she wouldn't know what closeness is in the first place.
"Oh I know what close is like to a guy like you. Guess it must have been a real easy decision for you."
His final comment though causes her to stare at him, not backing down, "Is that a threat? Or is a 'mysterious' tough guy like you going to say it's a 'promise' like some anime character?"
She stares a little longer, before then adding, "... I'm here for the mission - and have been since before you were ever here. If I here to cause trouble - you think I would have gone in after Yamagishi-san, despite having a problem with it?"
She does have a point - if she were here to cause trouble, then why would she risk her life on a mission she herself thought had no chance of success?
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"Yes," Reiya answers simply. It would be convenient. He sees no reason to deny that.
"No, it's not," he agrees. "But you understand secrets. Secrets that are dangerous for other people to know."
A pause. To a guy like him? "Do you?" he wonders. "If you did, then you wouldn't think it was easy."
She doesn't back down. That's good; he appreciates that, actually. "I don't know yet," he says. "You confuse me."
She's here for the mission. "I think you can believe in the mission and cause trouble," he says simply. "I don't think you're some double agent, no."
"...But whenever Kirijo comes up you seem suspicious. Kirijo, who bankrolls this school--and more."
"You're an element I can't account for. And that's risky. You're reliable on the mission, but outside the mission I don't know what it is you're after."
"You'll say you don't know what I'm after, either, probably. I will tell you something she knows, that isn't a secret."
"My mother works for the Kirijo Group as a researcher."
He doesn't specify what that means they have in common.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Get over yourself." Yukari says of 'secrets that are dangerous for someone to know'. "I'm not talking about you know what. Just a little. Enough. You're saying there's no part of it that's safe to say?"
She gestures sideways, "It feels like any random person tomorrow might be our teammate." Before she crosses her arms again, "And then they'd know that side of you and more."
But she wouldn't think it was easy? She remembers so many guys cutting off her Mother making her beg. Maybe it's not the same, but she thinks that guys? Guys can cut off relationships very easily.
"No I think it was very easy for you, actually. All you had to do was stand your ground, right? Stick to your guns."
She confuses him? "I think girls in general just confuse you." He does have a point on how she seems suspicious when the Kirijo comes up.
Part of her recoils internally, like 'they're onto her' but she decides the best course is to lean of it. "Bankrolls a school that has that happen to it every night."
She points out like it's obvious - only logical, "Anyone that isn't suspicious of that just isn't thinking. Or are you so loyal to them that it hasn't even crossed your mind?"
Indeed, it makes only sense right? Who wouldn't be suspicious of the Kirijo Group under these circumstances?
But can't be accounted for? She waits for him to finish, then- he'll see her gaze lower for a moment, like her expression just darkened some, then.
"Lucky her. Sounds like a good career. Maybe even too good to be true."
She can't say what she wants to say, 'Your Mom should get out while she still can.' He wouldn't listen to her anyway. "I'm here to erase it... and you can count on me for that. If you want to say you don't trust me because you can't account for everything going on with me."
She turns a little sideways, as if she was looking away from him, "Then maybe take a look in the mirror first."
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"I'm saying there are parts of it that aren't--and those are the parts I couldn't share."
But... It's true that anyone might turn out to be a teammate, but Reiya shakes his head. "You don't understand and I'm not in a position to change that."
Easy, though? Reiya's frown gets sharp again. "Then you don't understand that, either." She struck a nerve there--and his response is as calm as ever, despite it. It might be something more to dislike, that all he does is get a little sharp.
"True," he admits about girls in general. "But you in particular."
That happens, every night. "Yes, it does." A pause. Anyone who isn't suspicious?
"I don't have to be suspicious," he says simply. He doesn't elaborate. Instead--
"She lost her husband ten years ago," he answers instead. "My father."
She looks sideways, and he considers her for a moment. Then, another few moments.
"I will," he says. "I will count on you in our mission. I've seen what you can do. You have talents that I don't--talents that we need."
"But for me..."
"..."
No. That's not hers to know.
"It's personal," he says simply. "And I understand that you have no reason to trust me. You're right. Anyone reasonable would be suspicious..." He nods, after a moment. "I've been unfair to you," he decides. "You're right."
"You have no reason to trust me outside the mission. But in that mission you can. ...I know my duty."
He starts to turn.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Pretty sure I understand enough... and the rest? Probably isn't half as important as you think it is."
Is Yukari's terse response, striking a nerve or not, she's not the type to let someone off easy.
In her mind obviously the logic is 'If you loved her - then you'd figure out a way.'
...
Ten years ago
...
Her husband... his father.
She doesn't say anything, as he relates how personal it is, as he starts to turn, and she stays faced away in the opposite direction, at an angle.
"... You know it's funny."
Her tone is almost conversational now, "I can't remember a single case of 'Apathy Syndrome' being officially diagnosed until what... three, four years ago? I'd just transferred in to Gekkoukan Middle School when I saw it on the news."
...
"Ten years ago. Just after the Moonlight Bridge held it's opening ceremony..."
She trails off, and doesn't say anything else. Just staring ahead.
...
But she isn't walking away either.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
"..."
He doesn't like it, particularly. She's 'pretty sure', and he shakes his head at that. But the rest, not so important...? Hm. He looks distant for a moment at that. "..." is his silent response again. But there, they face away from each other. And that conversational tone...
"Ah," he says, realizing his earlier mistake. ...But it's already done. What it was called, what it wasn't called...
"They didn't call it that at the time," he says, a breadcrumb.
"...But my father wasn't lost to some random 'mental illness'. I knew that, back then. And I know it now. It makes me... angry."
"So I call it what it is. To remind myself."
"They call them the Lost. But they're not lost. Not a single one of them."
"They're taken," Reiya asys coolly.
"I saw that ceremony, too. And the news, back then."
"...I've lived here almost all my life."
If she won't walk away, then...
"I'll remember that though," he says. "..."
Hm.
"...You really think they're keeping that much from us...?"
Hm.
"...We'll see." He doesn't look back. He looks up to the sky, instead.
"..." He starts to walk away.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Sense of Isolation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6RGfmWUsQE
"... Right."
To 'they didn't call it that at the time.' It's not exactly a sound of skepticism, more like wondering if it is a half truth, omission.
"I know. After all... a good number just recovered after the first... second... and now those two from last time."
Yukari says quietly, as if it was impossible not to notice - these correlations. Maybe it's not causation. Maybe not for sure yet.
But on the news... miraculous recoveries, the day after.
"... I don't know what they're keeping from us."
Yukari admits to him.
"... But."
She adds almost immediately after.
"I don't think they'd told any of us it's been going on since ten years ago."
The Dark Hour. Apathy Syndrome.
"You knew though."
It's only then that Yukari starts to walk. And walk. And walk.
She doesn't stop walking until she gets to Naganaki Shrine. If he did follow her, all he'd see is her praying at the Shrine.
And then she'd go home.
<Pose Tracker> Reiya Aomori has posed.
They didn't know what it was, at the time. They couldn't know. There were so many questions, and almost all of the people who could've answered them were gone.
But...
Those two, from last time. It's proof--proof that they can make a difference. And that matters to him. But Yukari... She doesn't know what they're keeping, but--
"..."
How much are they telling the other members? ...How much are they allowed to know? And is it for the best, that way...?
"I knew," he says to the air after they're long separated from each other, coming to a stop and looking out over the bay.
"Dad," he starts, a hand over his heart. "...We'll get our revenge," he says.
He looks down, and pulls his phone, looking down at a message. He taps away a few keys on the advanced device, and lifts it to his ear.
"Mom," he starts. "...We need to talk when you're in town."
A car passes by, obscuring Reiya from view.
When it passes, he's gone.