2025-08-07: Basics of Interrogation
- Log: Basics of Interrogation
- Cast: Makoto Niijima, Ann Takamaki
- Where: Courtyard Vending Machines, Shujin Academy
- OOC Date: August 07, 2025
- IC Date: June 22, 2012
- Summary: Makoto Nijima, intrepid student counsel president, springs a trap on Ann Takamaki. It goes super well for both parties.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
So far, early efforts have proved fruitless. Principal Kobayakawa's 'snitch line' as some students are calling it has borne no information on the Phantom Thieves so far, and what it has brought is... troubling- and she needs to solve that herself.
Besides, at this point, the Principal only cares about the Phantom Thieves, and trying to raise other issues has gotten nowhere. Until this is done, until she has some information, until her recommendation and future are secure, this is what she has to focus on while in class.
Trying to talk to Amamiya had gotten her nowhere, he had shut her down so hard that he was like a brick wall. That left two other potential targets, and while Sakamoto was usually easy to find, today had gotten her nowhere. But there are two targets.
The weather is overcast today, and not many students are out in the connecting courtyard during lunch- but there's always people looking for an extra snack or who forgot their lunch and don't want to deal with the lines at the school store.
Was Makoto staking out the vending machines, or had she wandered there on a hunch? Who can say, but that little corner of the school is often quiet, and with the roof off limits for now, it seemed a good option.
It's there she spies her prey. Takamaki was easy to spot in a school like Shujin- her long naturally blonde hair, her height, her stand out model's features were all things that were hard to miss, and she was nearly as loud as Sakamoto, if not in this moment. Still, Makoto waits a few moments before approaching. Give her time to get comfortable, to get established and then-
"Takamaki-san," Makoto states, not bothering with subtlety- it sure hasn't helped with Amamiya. "Not with your friends today?"
If Makoto's even trying to sound friendly, it doesn't come across in her voice or posture- her arms are crossed slightly and she looks kind of smug, her tone of voice matching that. Still, she has positioned herself right in the middle of the path. There's no way of quietly evading this conversation. If Ann wants out, she'll have to push past Makoto- or just make her leave.
<Pose Tracker> Ann Takamaki has posed.
Ann Takamaki has rituals.
--Not like, religious, sacrifice-a-goat rituals. To be clear: Ann Takamaki is not sacrificing anyone! Especially not adorable goats!!
But, she has -- lets call them traditions. Things that help anchor her, things in the week she has to look forward to in an otherwise vast sea of monotonous schoolwork and day-to-day modeling. They also, unfortunately, make her a creature of patterns.
And patterns are easy to spot, especially if you're the valedictorian of your class.
Take, for example: the vending machine ritual. Once a week (or twice (or thrice if it's been a particularly frustrating week (you just try getting through a particularly ranty class with Ushimura-sensei without having some extra soda treats to get through the day!!))), Ann visits the vending machine at the school courtyard; the courtyard vending machine having the -best- selection of sodas, of course, to the point Ann is pretty convinced all the other vending machines got decommissioned or just don't exist anymore or something -- not her problem. And she makes one particular selection, every time:
o/` "Oh! Shiroku! Oh, oshiroku!" o/`
Yeah. That.
Ann is right there exactly on time, as hard to miss as ever, and while not -loud- she's also not particularly -quiet-, either: shamelessly humming out a jingle for Oh! Shiroku that she may or may not have made up on the fly, expression beaming bright with giddy excitement and arms swinging to and fro in the same sentiment with every step, Ann hops - literally, hops - to the front of the vending machine, pale blonde twintails bouncing with the jubilant motion and the subsequent squat she settles into before the clean-enough glowing vending machine case separating her from her prize.
"Hee hee, there you are, my sweet," she says with a chipper little giggle, sky blue eyes squeezing shut with her victorious grin. She's in a good mood today. Why shouldn't she be? Everything is, finally, looking up.
Her card is fed to the machine; pin number supplied; the cranky mechanical shift of gears and tinny drop of a can to the bottom of the machine announces her success.
And she's just about spun around back on her feet, prize cradled preciously between both her hands, when--
Not with your friends today?
"It's part of my diet!!"
And this is how Ann greets Makoto: blurting out a slightly too defensive defense completely unrelated to her question.
It takes a moment for the surprise of being basically BATMAN'D UPON by the Student Council President herself fades and just who she's facing finally sinks in. And when it does?
The good cheer bleeds from her like water slushing from a sieve as that cool can of soda is drawn closer to her chest, as if in a protective reflex.
Or a guarded one.
The latter one gets more credence in the cold-shoulder of an expression Ann offers Makoto -- or the flat way she asks,
"What do you want?"
Ugh. She's blocking the entrance. Didn't she call Ren out not too long ago? This is bad...!
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
Frankly, Makoto did not expect the secret rituals of the diabolical alleged Phantom Thieves to be so...
High energy and cute? Admittedly, it's not like Makoto has ever given Ann reason to be anything but aggressive in her presence, especially now. That's fine. She's student council president. She doesn't need other students to like her, she just has to do her job. That's her role. Her path is a lonely one anyway.
And as long as she keeps telling herself that, she'll be fine.
Still, that expression on her face doesn't change, that smugness, that forceful posture. Even though Ann is taller than Makoto, it's not hard to get the impression that Makoto is looking down on her.
Makoto expects the guardedness- it's a predictable response for a criminal who thinks they're caught, and only further reinforces's Makoto's suspicions. "So defensive. Do you have something to hide, Takamaki-san?" Makoto smiles, and it's not exactly a pleasant thing. "You know, I rarely see you separated from the others. You always look like you're having fun together. I'm kind of jealous." That same, infuriating, holier than thou tone of voice comes out, the expression like she's the cat that caught the canary. When Ann asks her question, Makoto keeps up that air of superiority. "You seem stressed. Is something wrong, Takamaki-san? As Student Council President, my door is always open if a student needs to share their concerns or is in need of support."
<Pose Tracker> Ann Takamaki has posed.
An Ann in her natural habitat is a rare thing to find. Especially if you were to go back just a few weeks ago, where all she had beyond Shiho were the protective walls she built around herself.
These days? She's so much more free to just be herself, and to hell with what anyone else thinks about that. Which means, of course: making up soda jingles with joy so bubbly it rivals her prize carbonated treat.
How she looks -now-, though? It's much more similar to those days where she gave the world the cold shoulder as a matter of survival in the day-to-day of quietly judgmental Shujin students. Maybe - unfairly - Makoto reminds her of those people: maybe that's why she's so quick to re-erect walls, to level a cold, tense look the student president's way. Why she's so quick to draw in on herself, both emotionally and physically, shoulders squaring up and pale fingers clenching a bit more tightly around her can. Or why those bright blues of hers are immediately shifting to the side, as if looking for an exit strategy.
It's also the classic actions of a guilty person, which -- fair.
Look. It can be two things!!
It's a guarded stance that only becomes -moreso- when Makoto speaks, already so smugly certain of Ann's guilt -- like whatever she was trying to pin on her, it was already a foregone conclusion. Ann stops trying to look for an exit at that moment, blue eyes narrowing as flight switches over to--
"Oh, is -that- why you keep hounding after me? You know, there's a word for that, senpai. It's called harassment."
--fight.
Ann draws up. Her hands fall to her sides, one perched on her hip, the other dangling that condensating can against her thigh as she engages Staredown Mode.
In some ways, it's just like those days Ann kept her and her opinions to herself. But...
"You must be -really- hungry for that recommendation letter, huh?"
She's not that girl anymore.
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
The guardedness turns to aggression. This is what Makoto should expect, too. In a fight, in an interrogation, make your opponent angry. Make them make mistakes- then use their own momentum against them. Her father did it, Sae does it, Makoto can do it too. Surely.
After all, Sae would have gotten results by now.
Still, the accusation of harassment stings, even as Makoto tries not to flinch back- and does an admirable job of it, this time. Makoto doesn't frown yet, but some of that arrogance fades from her voice, some of that sureness of her position falling away the second Ann pushes back. But she can't back off. Takamaki's not Amamiya. There's a weak link there. She can see it. She just has to break it.
"It's not unusual for the student council to keep an eye on students in difficult situations. You and your friends were all centers of attention lately." Is she even trying to sound genuine? Is it worse if she is?
But as Ann shifts into staredown mown, standing above Ann, Makoto doesn't break eye contact- but there's a shift in her posture. Her own arms fall to her sides, and the smugness vanishes, replaced with some indignation of her own. "...What's that supposed to mean?"
<Pose Tracker> Ann Takamaki has posed.
Difficult situations.
Difficult. Situations.
Ann's gaze flies wide. But she's not -shocked- by those two simple words.
"-Difficult situations-?"
She's -livid-.
"You -know- what it means," Ann snaps back, taking a step forward. Blonde brows raise; pink lips pull into an angry frown that borders towards a snarl as she snaps her free hand to the side. "All that talk about looking out for students in -difficult situations- is -rich- coming from you. You look out for us, huh? So what did you do for -Shiho-?! You're the student council president -- you had to have known something, right?"
Another step. Ann's eyes narrow. Indignation is a fine word for it; she looks, in that moment, like a fire just waiting to become an inferno.
"So what did -you- do about it? Or maybe you just looked the other way, like everyone else!"
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
Makoto was so sure she had the situation in hand. She was so sure she had something here-
And that certainty is burnt away by the flame of Ann's rage. Now she flinches. Now she steps back past the line in the sand that she herself had drawn, even if no arrows pierce her back- or Ann.
You're the student council president -- you had to have known something, right?
There's one thing Makoto never quite grasped about fighting or interrogations that the rest of her family did.
She can't meet Ann's eyes, looking away. "I didn't... Until that day, he was a good teacher, I swear!"
Fear is better than anger for mistakes- or confessions.
Ann's steps forward again, and Makoto takes another half step back. She feels like she's going to get burnt up if she doesn't. She knows she should be standing her ground. Sis would. Dad would.
Dad would... right?
"What about you?" Makoto retorts, her voice sharp and perhaps desperate. "What did you for your friend?" She manages to muster a glare back at Ann, but one can see the drops of sweat forming on Makoto's brow and face. Surely it's just the stress of the situation. "You were much closer to her than I was. You were closer to her than anyone else. So how did you help her?"
<Pose Tracker> Ann Takamaki has posed.
Until that day--
"Don't give me that!!"
She shouts. She can't help it. Any attempt to keep this at least a -relatively- contained argument flies out the window the exact second she hears those words. Her fury is righteous kindling snap-crackle-popping into a rapid wildfire of frustration and recrimination.
But is it really Makoto she's mad at? ...
"You're -just- like those teachers you love so much," Ann grates out through a clenched jaw. Her fingers are numb from gripping that cold aluminum so tight. She ignores it, thumb pressing into her Oh! Shiroku so fiercely it indents just a little around the pressure. "Only giving the rest of us the time of day when we start getting oh-so inconvenient for -your- bright futures--"
But what about -Shiho's- future, she wants to shout.
What about you?
She never gets the chance before those words hit -just- too close to home to the bulk of her anger.
Ann flinches back with a blink, reflexively. Her eyes widen for a moment, this time from surprise - maybe guilt? - rather than anger.
"I--"
What did you do for her?
You're worse, aren't you? After all, it's your decisions that cast her to the wolf--
"There wasn't -- there wasn't any way I could have helped!!" Ann exclaims, frustration boiling over as she snaps that can-bearing hand out to the side in an angry - defensive - sweep. "What could -- by myself, I... I couldn't do anything for her!!"
She draws back as her own pent up feelings overwhelm her. Her arms wrap around herself in a protective squeeze as she looks to the side. That can feels so cold. Why is she only aware of how much her nerves protest its chill against her fingertips -now-?
"I..."
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
Despite Makoto's attempt to gain footing, that shouting from Ann seems to push Makoto back further, she shrinks a little, even as Ann gets louder and louder and angrier and angrier. Even when Makoto manages to interrupt, when Ann flinches back- Makoto's already lost her own fight.
After all, she's not Sae. After all, she's just a pushover. Faltering an any pushback from anyone with more power or authority or use than her. Or even just a louder voice.
"There's no need to shout." Makoto responds, but her voice is weak.
What does she do now...? Takamaki is clearly... But it's not like she could help. It's not like she can do anything. She caused this.
'What about the victims' she had asked Akechi-kun. Yet here is one of the victims. And a suspect. What would be the just thing to do?
...what would be the safe thing to do?
For a moment, Makoto just stands there, mutely. Not moving toward or away from Ann as she draws in on herself. Should she press on, attack this weakness...?
Or should she do what she always does when Sis or the Principal mad at her. Shut up. Draw back. Hide in the armour of an honor student.
Right now, Makoto can't make that decision, so she just stands there, unable to make another step, her mind paralyzed.
<Pose Tracker> Ann Takamaki has posed.
Her eyes hooded, Ann Takamaki stares at the cracklines forming in the concrete, focusing on the little blades of grass creeping up between the unforgiving slabs of human civilization. All she can think about in that moment is how odd that is -- how grass can still grow among all that pavement. How does it manage to survive...?
It gives her something to focus on, something, anything to distract her from that guilt that fills in the cracklines of that damning silence that forms between her and Makoto in the aftermath. She tries not to think of it. But she can't help it.
It still manages to rise to the surface, all the same, as those last, meager words fill the air between them.
There's no need to shout.
"..."
Sky blue eyes shut. Ann sets her can of soda to the side, rubbing numb fingers with their warmer counterpart.
"... I really don't get you, Niijima-senpai," the Second Year utters, her voice a more quiet, subdued thing. If someone was assuming that flame had guttered out though -- the look in Ann's eyes when they reopen would disabuse anyone of that notion.
"If someone who helped people like the Phantom Thieves actually existed, wouldn't you want to support them?" Ann's own doubts about what they were doing -- about how far they were going -- bubble towards the surface...
"I know I would want someone around who I could -actually- trust to support me."
... and in that very moment, just burn away into so much past detritus.
"... But maybe that's why I can't understand you."
There's no need to shout, Makoto had said.
Ann's gaze lifts, and affixes a narrow-eyed stare directly on her student council president.
"I'm -done- just keeping quiet."
<Pose Tracker> Makoto Niijima has posed.
The fact that Ann does lower her volume is a small blessing, but Makoto's already been cowed. Which means she doesn't leave when Ann starts speaking again- quieter, more measured, but no less angry. No less driven.
A fire Makoto lacks.
She's silent, she doesn't argue, she just listens. Indeed, the signs of defeat in her face, in her posture, may be the biggest sign that she's listening. She could just close her ears and run away, but she doesn't. There's no counterarguments, no rebuttals, no denials. Just silence from the Student Council President.
And when Ann finishes her piece, Makoto says nothing. She's just standing there, for a moment.
...Almost like she's waiting to be told she can leave.
It's then that a bell rings through the near empty courtyard. The last warning that it's time to get back in one's seat.
"Just... make sure you make it to class." Makoto says, quietly, robotically. Emptily. Whatever little flames were in Makoto's voiced have turned into little more than glowing embers, as she retreats into that useless armour of her role.
She turns and walks stiffly away from Ann- no running in the halls, after all, and turns toward the gym.
She doesn't have gym next. She just needs to get out of Ann's sight. Or out of sight enough.
And there, she stops.
If someone who helped people out like the Phantom Thieves actually existed, wouldn't you want to support them?'
It's a good thing that no one no one nearby cares enough to hear her right now, even as students pass by her on the way back to class. If they did, they could tell that she's on the verge of tears as she comes to a stop by one of the metal pillars, and stares at the ground.
"...If only I could."
<Pose Tracker> Ann Takamaki has posed.
Ann Takamaki stands her ground. If nothing else, she still has that.
Something about Makoto just... gets a rise out of her. But it's no mystery. She knows exactly what it is.
And if she was being honest with herself... it really has nothing to do with Makoto.
Still: Ann watches Makoto, expression steeled. she doesn't budge from her position near the table, even as Makoto offers that quiet, perfunctory order to her. Being the mature young woman that she is, her reply is the elaborate roll of her eyes; it's mature, you see, because she didn't just blow a raspberry, which was -also- one of the options that immediately came to her.
But that look in Makoto's eyes...
"..."
Ann watches her senpai depart. And it's only once she's sure Makoto is well and truly out of sight and out of earshot that Ann suddenly sags, sprawling into the tableseat like a bag of bones.
"Ugh, we are in -so- much trouble," Ann whines, platinum bangs spilling over her right eye as she slumps forward, dourly cracking open her precious soda. Her taste for it might be completely shot now, but, well... tradition is tradition. And she doesn't have much time now. But still... that determined look she had remains in spirit.
She knows now, for sure. Whatever misgivings she had...
They can't stop here.
They had to find the next target.
She has to prove it. That this is in the right. That this will work.
It HAS to.