2025-09-21: Battle Maiden Ixquic vs Battle Grumpypants Umie Akabane
- Log: Battle Maiden Ixquic vs Battle Grumpypants Umie Akabane
- Cast: Umie Akabane, Akari Hoshi
- Where: Mementos, Shallows
- OOC Date: September 21, 2025
- IC Date: July 14, 2012
- Summary: Umie is exploring Mementos, looking for loot, experience, and a means to succeed in future plans. As she comes across Akari, Umie finds none of her plans (or her thoughts on the nature of good and evil) are any match for the shining hot-blooded will of a thirteen year old cosplayer.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
It's unwise to go to Mementos alone. It's also unwise to battle ninjas that summon illusions(?) of new spaces(?) by yourself.
Only one of these is something Umie has a choice in.
Plus, it means loot, which is something Umie also needs, which she carries in a secondhand hiking backpack. (Coincidentally, the backpack doubles as a blunt weapon. Such is the way of the DIY ninja: never devalue the element of surprise.)
Panting after resolving a 'dispute' that 'could have gone better', Umie sets her backpack down against a 'wall' and takes out a water bottle, uncapping it before sitting on top of it. Her painted mask, this time grey with 'camo' splotches on it, is taken off and used as a makeshift fan, displacing the ash blonde bangs from either side of her face. Such things come with small advantages like these.
Ughhhhhh, she'll have to haul whatever she finds out of the place too.... Why do cognitive objects have to be so *heavy*?
A stray sound is enough for the young woman to launch to her feet, her shoge at the ready; you can never trust anything to be completely 'safe' here, for long. Especially with the Reaper just bound to catch wind of you...
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
It *is* unwise to go into Mementos alone!
That's why Akari never goes very deep by herself, which ultimately means she doesn't go in very deep at all; she's never had anyone willing to explore it with her. But sometimes she does spend time in the shallowest levels.
And right now...
Umie might get the sensation she's being watched. Then there's the sound of footsteps... which may have been what she heard in the first place. And then -
A figure, stepping around a corner! Adorned with metal shackles and chains, wrapped in a robe!
...or not. Ixquic doesn't have a robe. She has a bright red cloak over a cream-coloured outfit; the cloak is further out than usual because she has a not-Ixquic-standard backpack over her back, underneath it. And those aren't shackles, they're golden bracers, a matching golden pectoral plate resting against her chest. Her eyes really are out of sight, though, behind that helmet she's wearing.
"Aah!" she yelps, just as startled as Umie. "I didn't think you were that CLOSE!" Well, Umie's stealth is better than Akari's...
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
The sharp bifurcated blade of the shoge is held at the ready; even if it's not really meant to be used as a slashing weapon, but rather as a way to divert or catch someone else's blade, it's not like some shadow is going to know that!
Quietly, the blade is lowered; Umie's senses tell her that whatever is coming, it's not the Reaper (which she does, in fact, fear).
However, she can't tell exactly *what*, in a way that it could be a Mask-san? (Yes, this is Umie's name for all WIll of Rebellion types, due to not *knowing* what a Will of Rebellion even is.)
Unfortunately, Umie is similarly 'cloaked' in the Badb's grey grace, a force of habit than of actual necessity.
Downing her bottle of water as the person comes close, she chokes as Akari becomes startled, inelegantly spending the next minute or so coughing up the liquid that's made it into the wrong side of her throat.
"Ah. Yes. Give m--" She coughs again, holding up a hand. "--a sec. ... Ip...qu-pic-ku.... san?" Umie is really trying hard, with how her eyes squint. Sure, 'Gold-san' would be easier, but if there's a name, she needs to abide by it. Them's the rules.
If Umie seems a little smug now at Akari's surprise (despite choking on her drink moments earlier), it's not Akari's imagination. She's totally giving a mischievous smile, as she then asks, nonchalantly, "... How's life been treating you?"
... Like that is something someone could say, in a space where life and death could be a simple stone's toss away.
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
Ixquic recovers faster than Umie does, mostly by virtue of not having inhaled any water while she did it.
"...are you all right?" she asks, though it seems the answer is yes, once she manages to catch her breath. Ixquic lowers her own weapon, the gigantic... gold? bronze? sword that she favours. It's shiny, anyway. And big. She tends to brace it across her shoulders or, like now, lower it so the tip is almost on the floor.
"And it's Ixquic!" The X is almost-but-not-quite the 'sh' sound. Ixquic spells it out on her fingers, slowly, as if she was going to use kana, "I-shu-ki-kku," before: "Ixquic! It's Mayan. ...I just liked the name, though, it doesn't mean the same thing as the myth." Ixquic *may* have read a book about Mayan mythology at a formative age.
How's life been treating her?
"A hero never complains!" she proclaims, before looking like she deflated a little. "Some days I'd like to. But I've been busy. I've been helping people! And I need to train too, so I come to Mementos sometimes, there's lots of stuff in here if you don't mind looking around."
She looks directly at Umie's backpack. "And you found some of it, too, didn't you?"
But then Ixquic brightens. "Actually! I've been looking for you, since the Palace. I figured you weren't going to leave off there, and just go back to being boring. So it's good that we met here! Even if it is kind of an ugly place," she adds. Mementos is not what she'd call a tourist destination.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Y-yeah," Umie manages, clearing her throat as she drinks more from her water bottle.
"Ishukik-ku." The blonde tries to commit it to memory for what may be the sixth or seventh time she's been corrected on the pronounication of Ixquic's name. "Right, it's Mayan." Umie's lips pucker as she drinks some more water, wiping her mouth with the back of one sleeve. "I remember you saying that, before. So you then... made an outfit to match, right?"
It comes a little too naturally to her, sometimes, these leading questions; it's not that Umie especially wants to *trick* Akari by stating something that may not be true, but it's not as if any others she's run across have been especially... forthcoming. For good reasons.
".... Pretty sure all heroes complain," Umie says, as she settles back on her backpack, screwing the cap back on her almost empty bottle of water. "Got to let off steam somehow. But... busy is good." She takes in a breath, looking up with an abrupt tilt of her chin upwards. "... Let's walk and talk." It's not the Reaper, but she'd like to not attract attention while she's here. Standing up, she stoops down to loop her arms through the backpack's straps. "Got to make rent somehow," she grunts in agreement, hefting herself up onto her feet. "Plus I'm looking for items that may have some value. These areas, though... I'm not getting anything too unique." If she had known Kaneshiro's Palace would *disappear*, she would have grabbed more things; now, she's getting the same things as everyone else.
Tsumugi's not going to be able to do much with what she gives them, at this rate...
"You have?" Umie looks over her shoulder (or, more like, turns because her backpack's in the way. She gives Akari a sly smile. "So you're not convinced I'm a boring adult here to ruin things, eh--" 'I figured you weren't going to leave off there, and just go back to being boring.' The sly smile disappears with a flat line of a frown.
And she relents, with a sigh. ".... got it in one, yeah." How many times has she been tapping away at the counter at Lucky 7? "But, you found me, doing what you're doing." She assumes, anyway.
Going up to a wall, Umie considers, and attempts to kick at it with her sneakers, before frowning and walking off. "The insides of things born out of people usually don't," Umie says, distracted, as she sets her backpack down. "But this is better than Kaneshiro's, at least. What did you think of that place in full, now that some time's past? "
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
'So you made an outfit to match?'
It's a leading question, but Ixquic doesn't recognize it as one. Ixquic is... maybe not trusting; that might be a little too much. But certainly more willing to talk than a lot of people Umie might have found down here.
"Nope!" Ixquic says, brightly. "I made an outfit for a costume for... well, I like to draw and design. So I designed it, and I drew." She did all that drawing when she wasn't supposed to but don't worry about that. "And then I made it. I do sewing, and cosplay craft, and stuff," she explains. "I didn't make the helmet but I imagined it... or something close, anyway."
When Umie wants to walk, Ixquic nods agreeably, and tags along. The sword migrates up to her shoulder, where she can carry the weight of it more comfortably. Her expression is invisible - she's got the whole helmet on today so her face is hidden behind it.
"Some of it looks better here," she continues, because it turns out cognitive space will cover for you if you believe hard enough. "And I mean, it's not a real sword, anywhere else. It's foam and Worbla and some other stuff. But here..." She bangs it against her boot, getting a metallic sound out of it. She privately admits, "It's a lot heavier here. I need to practice just to get used to carrying it around."
What the hell is worbla. Is this The Youth talking? Is Umie out of touch?
But Umie has asked her another question.
"I hated it!" Akari blurts out. "I mean, I hate that anyone could act like that, and think like that. It's good that it's gone. I know you weren't sure about a Change of Heart, but... but it's done good, right? It's a hero's duty to fight evil, wherever it may be. Even if it's in a Palace. Or if you mean what it looked like... it was kind of gaudy. I like gold, but I don't like gold like *that*."
Ixquic huffs inside her helmet. "But the people he was going to hurt are safe now, so we can be proud of that. And if someone else tries it again we can kick their asses too! Demons watch out, we're on the case!"
"Actually, though... something you said in there made me think a bit. Someone's got to take care of the heads, of the evil, right? Do you still think that?" Ixquic asks, almost anxious. "Do you think it was good, to stop Kaneshiro's evil piggy bank, and that he turned himself in?"
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"So you made an outfit," Umie repeats, tilting her head in obvious confusion. "I'm just... trying to figure out where everyone's gotten theirs. So, you made them, sounds like." Not too different from what she's done, modifying and fixing her own coat by herself. There's a clear difference between her high school level sewing club skills and... just about anything she's seen these Mask-wearers wear. (Maybe people are just really good at it? Goes to show what happens when you seal yourself away from others for years: you're not as experienced as you think you are.)
.... Wait. "But you made your helmet too, just like I made my masks," Umie states, clarifying. But hadn't she seen...? Yeah, there's something all of them have done, with their masks.
"Yeah, I noticed. Even my stuff works better, even if it comes flying apart the second I get out. It's thought and belief that powers it, right? Even a bunch of garden tools wielded together become close enough to the real thing." The materials aren't familiar to Umie, but she's definitely keeping them in mind. Her eyelids lower as she looks down in thought. Then, again, she looks sharply up. "Okay, let's move some more." There is a reason why Umie does moderately well in these surface-level areas, but it's not foolproof.
"Hm." Umie, walking as she adjusts her backpack, continues. "That was the first time I've even seen what they do. And even then, I doubt we really know *how*." She's quiet for a few moments longer as they traverse the tunnel, then adds, "I had reasons to have faith in them. They saved my life, after all."
This, she figures, is safe enough to repeat, since she's said it before. "But if that method got out, what would stop someone else from doing the same to any of us? Changing us without our consent? What we did was a matter of self-defense; I'm pretty sure a lot of his victims would have preferred to call Joker Kille-- er, Old Maid on him, or Strega. But he's just one person; if you listened to the news report, you may have seen another nugget of news that floated by while everyone else paying attention to Kaneshiro's confession: the arrest of Koichi Tawarada. His father may have been destroying evidence to conceal his son's murders-- he's also the leader of the Liberal Co-Prosperity party, though probably not for long."
She turns back, and looks at Akari for a long moment. "If Kaneshiro hadn't made all the mistakes he did, we'd all be none the wiser. The Phantom Thieves may have still succeeded, and, I'd almost wonder if they'd have preferred it that way. There's likely countless Palaces like his out there, but what determines who gets a Palace and who doesn't? Is it really just 'someone being evil'?"
"A hydra's heads aren't evil. They just are. Best to deal with the ones that are hurting others, or ones that lead to a strategic victory." She resumes walking. ".... I think it's good to not let others walk all over other people," she adds, softly. "But to think it terms of someone being 'good' or 'evil'... I think that's a trap. Any one of us could have a Palace just as bad, if not worse. Kaneshiro just embodied it more obviously, so we were able to see it. Who determines the logic of this place?"
...... OH GOD UMIE THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO BE ASKING THIS POOR GIRL
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
Ixquic actually thinks about this for a bit.
"I think - well, I don't know where most people get theirs. Don't you just... make some of it, and find the rest...?" Ixquic isn't entirely sure. "I KNOW your mask is homemade! You have a different one every time. You really need to find one that fits your style..."
"...a ninja striking from the shadows - a friend to the weak, even if they won't call themselves a hero, searching for her own faith, who strikes a blow to protect what they love... then vanishes back into the darkness from whence they came!" Okay, so Ixquic might have a somewhat... unusual view of Umie. But she's sometimes more perceptive than she gets credit for, even if it gets filtered.
"They saved your life? See!" Ixquic practically bounces on her feet, walking or not. (This is about the time when it's easy to point out that Ixquic, despite being maybe fourteen or fifteen, is taller than Umie is. Sorry, Umie.)
She does absorb the rest of it without immediate commentary, though. Her body language is open, prone to big gestures, and it's clear she wants to respond several times, but she lets Umie finish before she opens her mouth again.
If she's being honest, Akari *did* miss the rest of the news, because she's not exactly a political news follower. Probably her father noticed, but it's not like they've talked much. She just pushes ahead anyway because that's what she does.
"I think..."
"I think you have to look at things *wrong* to get a Palace," Ixquic says, slowly, as she's thinking through it at the same time. "It's like Merry - um, Myunghon said. They said it felt bad, just to be near. I don't feel it that way, but... Kaneshiro wanted more and more money, right? Everybody was only worth what they could do for him, or to him. He wasn't afraid of anybody he thought was weaker than him, until he lost his money, and his goons."
She's trying to say 'distorted worldview' but, come on. She doesn't have the knowledge of psychology to say that.
"I read once in a manga, that the root of all evil is treating people like *things*. So I think anyone who has a Palace like that must be. But I haven't seen enough Palaces to know much more. If Madarame had one, and he was plaigarizing, it would be the same for him, right? People only were worth what they could get him. And he hated art..."
To Akari, that's really a pain point. She remembers the argument she had with her parents over it; she flinches back from that topic almost reflexively.
"But you care about people like people, so you wouldn't have a Palace. Even if you say you aren't a hero~," Ixquic almost teases. "And the Phantom Thieves - You see what they did with the Shadow! And not just them but Myunghon too. You said then, it was like 'correcting an imbalance in the psyche'," she quotes, even accurately, because Ixquic is nothing if not good at remembering things you'd rather she'd not. "If you don't have one, because you don't have a Palace..." Could the Phantom Thieves do anything at all?
She shudders. "The only thing you could do then is what that other one tried to do. To kill him. And we'd never do that, right? I wouldn't... - Oh, but hold on a moment!" Ixquic holds up one hand.
*thomp*
Ixquic drops her own backpack. "Actually, you made me think about it, when we were in the Palace. I was mad then, when you wanted to turn back. But then you listened. Nobody ever listens to me; I hate it. And you still want to act, right? So..."
Ixquic opens the backpack, and pulls something out.
Outside of Mementos, it's a cosplay weapon; a kyoketsu-shoge made of the same kind of cosplay materials as Akari has already indicated she knows how to make, with a ring weight on the back painted gold and laboriously shaped foam around a solid core, the connector a slim rope rather than cable or chain.
But here, in the Cognitive realm, it's different.
The blade is normal, though the rearward curved section is a little longer than some of them - it probably could double as a pretty good hook. But the rope is clearly a rebraided Take-Minekata rope, the very one that she took from the Palace, and the ring weight on the back end is an oversized wadoukaichin, the historic Japanese coin - round, with a square hole in the middle. The blade is, despite being metal, almost jet black; the coin is, perhaps unsurprisingly, shining gold.
"If you're going to fight for people, you need a cooler weapon," Ixquic says, dead serious. "So, well... I made one. You don't have to use it," she says, almost nervous about it. "But you did so much, and you listened to me, and - and you *are* cool, even if you don't think so! Fighting from the darkness but willing to take a stand...!"
"That's bravery too," she says. "Plus, I had the image of you using something like this, and I just HAD to! You know how it is!"
Don't mind her. She gets like this sometimes. (Artists, man.) But Ixquic offers the weapon (and here, it really is a weapon) to Umie.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Oh yeah, that's how I did all my stuff," Umie confirms. "So I figured everyone was like that." Carefully placing that half mask on her face, while adjusting the straps with the other, Umie adds, "It gets boring if I paint the same design every time. I may as well be the one that keeps changing."
But then, Akari's heroic praise of Umie throws the young woman completely off; she nearly falls backwards, like a tipped over turtle, as her face turns red. "...!!?" Akari hits hard with more than her sword, it seems, and Umie's particularly weak to tactics like this.
"... I'm.... gh...." She holds her hands over her face now, as if to stifle the heat from those red cheeks by depriving them of oxygen.
(... As for the height, yeah, Umie's used to that from people who are slightly younger than her, though Akari definitely is the youngest by far.)
There's probably not a lot of people who'd pay attention to the news that way; Umie certainly wouldn't have, if Tatsuzou's face hadn't appeared on the news.
"See what?" Umie shakes her head, chuckling. "I have as much of a blind spot as you do about them. But it just makes me protective, even if they probably don't really *need* some 'heroic shadow ninja' trying to look out for them." Her smile turns sharply sardonic. "Especially when they had to save *my* ass."
Akari mentions Myunghon, drawing a surprised 'huh' from Umie. "... So they've given you a lot of food for thought too. A lot of the things I've been thinking over have been because of them, to be honest." She turns back, hefting the backpack up. "I don't see that as evil, though. Just sad. That's a lot worse, though. No one wants pity like that." It implies you're not the one in control. "Any one of us could become a Kaneshiro. You heard about how he built himself up from nothing, right? At what point did that drive to improve himself become the thing that poisoned him? When did the desire become distorted?" She shrugs. "But it probably doesn't matter, really. The outcome is what it is, and somebody had to come in and stop them before they continued to hurt others."
Umie's perception can be limited when it comes to people, but after hearing what Akari's said to her before, and seeing that flinch now-- "There's nothing wrong with having a passion like that, Ixquic-san," she says, softly. "It helped you here, didn't it? If your parents--" Her eyelids lower halfway, a slow smile forming on her lips as she makes her risky assumption, "--couldn't see that, that's on them."
'Correcting an imbalance in the psyche'. Even if she said that at the time, who determines that? She just said that to comfort her own paranoia that she'd be next. Or worse, she'd be the one deciding.
"Right. Killing's not an option. Ever." So easy for Umie to say in front of Akari. Mai-chan doesn't even *need* to say what Umie already is thinking in her mind.
Akari stops her train of thought; Umie looks up. "Yeah? Er..." Umie's cheeks begin to turn pink. "It was just... I was being protective, of them--"
"...!" Umie's eyes widen as Akari unveils the weapon. When Akari offers it to her, Umie takes it, her hands testing the weight with practiced calm, despite her brain still frizzling out at being given a gift like this. ".... Ixquic-san. Are you sure? This is... all you." It's perfect; assuming the materials would be cognitive, she'd need to use her other one for mundane spaces, but the lighter weight might make sure she's not breaking her back when she's escaping. ".... I'll accept it, but I have to give you something in return."
<Pose Tracker> Akari Hoshi has posed.
(Akari is tall for her age and has the kind of rangy, unfinished look that suggests she's going to get taller yet. It's going to get worse. Sorry, Umie.)
Ixquic doesn't *quite* laugh at Umie's response to her praise, but she's probably grinning under the helmet. Her eyes are just visible through the visor and they have the crinkle around the edges that suggests that's what her expression is.
"Maybe they don't, but I don't think it's bad either. The mysterious Phantom Thieves collect mysterious allies! They even got me." Is she joking about herself? Maybe so... "Though I didn't get my autograph yet! She still owes me, but I haven't found her yet, even when I come in here once in a while."
Maybe it is sad, what Kaneshiro was. "I don't know," Ixquic says, honestly. "Maybe he was always like that. Maybe he wasn't. I don't think I'd be a Kaneshiro!" Even if, sometimes, she thinks it *might* be easier to knock things like 'rules' over and start again.
"But he *was*, and it wouldn't have been right to let him hurt people. If treating people like things is what evil is, defending them must be something a hero does! And yeah, of course I know Myunghon! I met them in here too. I like their coat; isn't it the coolest coat ever? MINE doesn't do anything like that... But we've talked a few times. They told me about... well, a lot of things. We talked a little about Palaces, too." Maybe that's why she actually seemed educated on the topic.
She nods, firmly, at 'killing is not an option'. She never thought it was. "The person in the black mask scared me," Akari admits. "Not just because he's powerful, but because the only thing he came to do was kill. I felt it..." And Ixquic isn't actually all that good at Resonance, comparatively.
'If your parents couldn't see that, that's on them.'
Ixquic's entire body tenses. No need to be perceptive to spot *that*. "They don't like it," she admits. "They think I should focus on classes more. But I want to go to school for art! To study - I don't know. Costuming? Design? I don't even know what's out there! I mean, I read and watch every tutorial I can find, but I only got to do the real basic classes, except for sewing, because sewing's 'appropriate'... there's so much more!"
If Akari's family wasn't wealthy, she wouldn't have the ability to get the tools she has, either. She knows she lucked out there, but that's definitely not something she's going to bring up. She's mostly self-taught. If she's as good as she is, she's an artistic prodigy.
And when Umie gets the shoge out of Mementos, she might be able to tell that Akari is perhaps not as experienced as she'd like. She has skills, undoubtably; she's a good hand with carving and sculpting the foam, and spray-painting the gold onto the ring, and working with paper clay. There are no huge errors. But there's plenty of room for her to get better, too. More detailed carving, finer sculpting. Fortunately, the cognitive realm makes it so that the weapon, imbued with Akari's imagination as much as her skill and integrating cognitive materials like that rope, is perfectly effective here. It's *stylish*, too, and that's just as important to her.
"That's right, it's all me!" Akari draws herself up, puffing out her chest. "Sometimes - I just really want to make something. Or draw it, or whatever. I hate holding it in, it keeps me distracted for days until I find some time, and then I just go and *do* it. So I made it. But it's not made for me to use! I don't know how, and anyway I was thinking of you using it. So you could keep on fighting, in the shadows of the cognitive realm!"
OK she definitely stole that term from someone else. But, artists... artists are like that sometimes. And before anything else, Akari is an artist.
"...I'll accept something in return though," she agrees. "I mean, that's fair."
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"That'll probably just encourage them," Umie says, with a laugh. "Probably for the best. It's going to get harder from here on out, now that there's more eyes on them. But we need to keep an eye on ourselves, too. Yeo-san probably'd need someone with your energy occasionally visiting them. Keeps things in perspective."
She knows there's been eyes on all of them; especially since--
".... I intend to do something about that." It's easy to be arrogant, walking through Mementos like you don't remember how that resonance of that Black Mask'ed man felt. "I'm certainly not intending on fighting that person, but if I could just figure out their secret..." Umie sighs, shrugging. "I bet I could mimic whatever they did, but they definitely have more experience at it. And a killing intent to go with it, which is _lovely_." Yes, that was sarcasm. "They could have killed us all back then, you know. But they didn't. If that factor isn't there... I guess the main thing is, you won't even feel i--" UMIE THIS IS A TEENAGE GIRL
"Ahem." Umie clears her throat, holding up a finger. "... Point is, this is where the ride gets bumpy." It *has* to be the NWO, because *everything* is.
The dark playfulness deflates. ".... mmn." Umie sighs again, but this time, it's not to punctuate her own sense of humor. "Studying and classes are important too. I won't pretend otherwise. But it doesn't need to be a situation where you choose one or the other. ... My parents were similar," she shares, quietly. "Though I didn't have any major interests that they disliked." In that way, it was easier for her. Not so much for Akari.
"Well," Umie says, as she tests the shoge, "I'll give you feedback, then. Seems to be a fair trade then, doesn't it?"
But not quite.
"I'd make something custom, but you need to keep your identity a secret." Umie tucks the shoge around her waist under her opened coat, hanging the the 'coin' over the blade. "Still, if things work the way they do here, it'll probably give you at least a little luck, or maybe protection. Whatever you see me as, then, a little bit of it's in the bracelet."
She opens on flap of her jacket to look inside, seeing the few bracelets she has ready, but not letting Akari see what she has. "This looks like you. Just be careful where and when you wear it; you'll give yourself away if I see it." It's a braided cord made of silk thread, dark yellow paired with a paler shade of the same color. A loop is at the end, making it easy to be used as a bracelet or for tying something.
She holds it out to Akari. "Let's get moving, though. I think activity's picking back up, and I need to unload. Follow me if you need to get to the exit; it's not too far away."