2025-10-21: Maki's Schoolmates
- Log: 2025-10-21 Maki's Schoolmates
- Cast: Yanagi Nagisa, Eriko Kirishima, Masao Inaba
- Where: Peacock Silk, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo
- OOC Date: Oct 21, 2025
- IC Date: Sun, Jul 29, 2012
- Summary: Eriko and Masao stop by fashion mecca Peacock Silk, and the employee who greets them is none other than a former schoolmate from St. Hermelin High. Yanagi catches up with them--to an extent--and takes their orders for defensive accessories to wear during their supernatural battles.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
The sun sets on the long streets of Shimokitazawa, but that doesn't mean that this particular neighborhood of Tokyo is getting any less lively. Music and dancers fill the streets, people laugh within bars open to the crowds, and more.
Even some less night-centric shops are still open, like Peacock Silk. Its hours are eclectic at best, since its employees work essentially when they want to (seriously, how do they stay in business? (crime. it's crime)). Right now, that includes Yanagi Nagisa, dressed today in a ruffled sleeveless white blouse with puffy bobs stitched on, a ribbon tying a cameo brooch with a sodalite backing and pewter frame to her throat, and a long, ruffled skirt in sky blue. Sapphire earrings in silver dangle from her earlobes, and today's hairclips are bobs of freshwater cultured pearls lending texture to silver, giving the illusion of clouds in her long, pale hair. Beads thread bracelets, and soft blue flats cover her feet.
She's seated at her jewelry-making station in the main store. Classical music plays on the radio nearby her while she reads a magazine and hums along. The store is utterly dead, with only the lights on inside to indicate that it's open at all, but she doesn't mind.
<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.
You mean Peacock Silk isn't kept aloft purely by providing a unique service to a small clientele that no others can match? How scandalous!
Still, what's a little scandal to prevent someone investigating a new and interesting location? And also it's not a scandal yet.
And that is why Eriko has insisted on dragging Masao all the way out to Shimokitazawa in Tokyo to visit a fashion boutique. It's definitely tied to the supernatural world, which means she has an extra reason to visit- and also the worlds of fashion and art are inextricably linked so clearly she should bring her cool art friends!
Today, Eriko is dressed in her main supernatural investigation outfit, which is still a very fashionable tan jumpsuit with long sleeves and short shorts, and orange long sleeved top peeking out from under the jumpsuit and calf length black platform boots with integrated tan gaiters. The brand monograms are intact, indicating it a 'Calamity's Child' design, but it's also clearly been modified with action in mind, with a better range of movement than on the shelf would provide and some subtle reinforcement.
The quiet of the store is not a huge surprise, often boutiques like this are appointment only, but the lights are on and the door is unlocked, so Eriko walks on in with the confidence of a discerning and curious customer, interested to see what Peacock Silk has to offer.
Never mind that she may also have a bag of interesting materials in case the rumours are true.
"Good evening," Eriko says, as she sees the boutique's jeweller at her work station, giving a casual wave. "We're not interrupting your work, are we?"
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Masao could afford to take his mind off of college exams. He is so willing to have his mind taken off of the immense awkwardness of the whole of it with the whole Madarame scandal that he makes the mistake(?) of letting Eriko set the pace of what they're doing out and about in Tokyo. At best, the name 'Peacock Silk' might've been something he just heard in passing and he's not sure what to fully expect (unless Eriko told him along the way).
(It's a little easier to trust something's not going to go wrong when it isn't Brown coming up with an idea, as has been the way of things since forever.)
...Besides, Eriko confided in him in what she'd been dealing with, so there's classmate solidarity going out and about into whatever fashion boutique's got her interest with the bag of very interesting things he's also helping carry.
"This is the place, yeah?" He looks up - but Eriko's already gone in, so he's hastily playing catchup for a few steps before coming to a stop from a different view of direction from where Eriko's standing.
He blinks the once as he just sees the boutique's jeweler. That reminds him of someone--
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Scandalous max~
The bell of the door chimes pleasantly, and Yanagi looks up to see two people arrive. She blinks once, thoughtfully, at Eriko, then smiles warmly.
You say, "Not at all--I'm just doing some research," she reassures her, setting her magazine down. It is, indeed, a magazine on gems and jewelry. She looks over at Masao and the bag that he's helping to carry, then adds, "It seems like there's something you'd like to sell us?"
She doesn't hide her Resonance, and Eriko and Masao's are clear to her as well as a Navigator. This is indeed a shop that caters to a small, select clientele--and while they'll also cater to non-Persona Users, those ones had better be very rich.
Eriko and Masao thus get to enjoy the Being Interesting sale.
"Depending on what you've brought, I ought to be able to make you some lovely accessories with some very useful properties," she goes on. "Are either of you interested in that too?"
Beyond their Resonance, Eriko and Masao are familiar... Eriko specifically because she's a model, but also a bit beyond that. Where has she seen them before... Definitely not at Blacksite Revelation... but where?
<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.
Eriko's favourite type of sale!
Indeed, Yanagi's resonance standing out is quite clear and obvious, which only confirms what she heard. Excellent. She nods to Mark. "Yes, definitely!" She confirms to Mark, before turning back to Yanagi.
"Well, that's part of it," Eriko confirms to Yanagi. "But, well, I can hardly attend a rising boutique without seeing their wares myself." Eriko gives a smile, now that any pretense can be dropped.
Yanagi, indeed, talks about working with the materials. "I am positively fascinated! I never thought that someone could work with these sorts of things, and I would 'love to see what you could do with it. And, well, fashion is something of a personal interest of mine as well."
Still, Mark seems to have a hint of recognition, and Yanagai too seems to pose. "Mark?" She asks, her eyes flicking to her friend.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Masao doesn't fixate as much on the Resonance being felt, other than 'oh of course it makes sense why Eriko really wanted to go to this one,' because there's something a lot more interesting than that as he recognizes the 'who' the person in question Eriko talking to is.
"...Nagisa?" He says the name, inquisitively, with a blink. And then... a wider smile, that silly smile he can put on his face that his early adult years hasn't taken from him yet. "Hey, it's been a while, looks like... you'd been doin' a lot better."
He steps up to set down the bag of interesting cognitive materials that he helped Eriko bring here, bringing a hand to the back of his head. "Wow! Wasn't expectin' this today..."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Certainly. It's good to see a place's wares for yourself!" Yanagi says with a firm nod. Looking up goods in magazines is a fine start, but you really need to see them for yourself--feel them, wear them--before you know for sure if it really is good.
Mind you, the point of her research is to get ideas for her own work... but still.
But then Mark names her, and Yanagi startles. She stares at him for a moment, even after he smiles and remarks on how much better she looks now...
"Oh!" she utters, clapping her hands together. "Don't I know you from St. Hermelin?" She looks at Eriko. "Both of you, I think!" Not to mention the fight against the Emperor and Empress Shadows... though Yanagi recognized Eriko from that through her Resonance rather than her appearance. "It's been a long time... A lifetime ago, even." Her smile is a touch bittersweet. "I wasn't expecting this either."
Still, business is business. Yanagi will fetch her jeweler's eyepiece, put it on, accept the bag of cognitive goods, dump them out on her station, and start going through them. As she does, she wonders, "How did you two awaken to your Personas?" Do they know about Maki...?
<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.
And given how often boutique pieces are unique, it can only give you an impression admittedly. "Precisely! And you can only see the true workmanship in person, or feel it in your hands. You don't know something will suit you until you try it yourself."
Still, Mark puts a name to the jeweller in front of her, and Yanagi in turn recognizes Mark, and after a moment, seemingly Eriko. "Oh!" She says, clearly surprised. "You were at St Hermelin as well?" Eriko says, not recognizing the other woman, but Mark clearly does. But Eriko only transferred in second year. Still... "Do you know Maki-chan by chance, Miss Yanagi? She mentioned meeting another Persona user who went to St Hermelin recently..."
Well that answers Yanagi's question.
"Oh, I don't think we've ever properly met before now. I'm Eriko Kirishima. It's nice to meet you, Miss Nagisa."
Still, Mark and Yanagi both seem very surprised, and she wonders if she's crowded something, a little. But reunions can happen at the most surprising and auspicious times.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"Yeah, you would!" Masao answers enthusiastically, who flipped from being sort of a (willing) tag-along just trying to rise from the stupor of crushing college courses to being a lot more lively in just this span of time!
"Oh, yeah," he looks to Eriko, "she wasn't in our classroom back then," he says to her. This much is true, but there's a little more to that, as he turns to face Yanagi.
"Our Personas? Well... I played the Persona Game," on a dare, that he lost, he's not going to say that. High school's over, that grudge has no reason to exist in a healthy adult psyche. "And, uh... well." He looks to the side. "Quite the time for that to give a Persona then..."
"Heh, I mean," Masao straightens out some. "It's cool to see you doin' what you love, yeah? I'm glad for you. I studied abroad in America after I graduated!" ...And came back very early. "So... that's why I hadn't been about 'till some moths ago."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Mhm! You understand well! Just as I'd expect from a professional model," Yanagi chirps. "I recognize you from the runways already, Eriko. But it's nice to meet you, too!" Eriko, yobisute, as if they're longtime friends and not two people who happened to go to the same high school for a short time. (Addressing people this way is normal for Yanagi, though.)
"I do know Maki! We were in Mikage Hospital together, though back then she didn't want anything to do with me. But we ran into each other recently and became friends!" Yanagi beams, then gives Eriko and Masao a considering look. Masao mentions the Persona Game--which Maki didn't, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Deciding to cut straight to the point, she wonders, "She said that some friends of hers helped save her from herself and a man named Kandori. Is that the two of you?"
She smiles warmly at Masao. "It is! I'm glad for you too--it must've been so fun to study in another country! What are you doing now?" No need to ask Eriko that--Yanagi already knows.
She also continues to review the cognitive goods, because she can do two things at once. There's some good junk here so far!
<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.
"Oh, I did too!" Eriko says. confirming Mark's story. "It was in high school. Mark was so convinced he wasn't real that he wagered a meal for everyone at Peace Diner on it!" Eriko giggles at the memory of back then, fully exposing Mark's tragic secret. "I guess you know better now."
Yanagi goes straight to Eriko, and Eriko's smile turns a little... faker? Or just off, perhaps. "Oh, thank you. I admit I've only been getting TV and Magazine work of late, but I hope to get back into local fashion shows soon." Still, Eriko doesn't blanche at Yanagi going to yobisute straight away. In fact, that seems to make her smile become a touch realer. "I didn't really get to know Maki-chan until after her recovery, I'm afraid. But she told me she met you recently, what are the chances I would encounter you so quickly, Miss Yanagi." For Eriko, too, goes to first name as soon as possible, even if it's with an english honorific.
Still, Yanagi mentions Kandori, and Eriko blinks. After all that was covered up about the SEBEC incident, after all the sacrifices made by the adults in their life... "We were involved, yes. It was a rather tumultuous time, if I am honest." ...after all, there were reasons they next few years at St Hermelin had more empty seats at graduation than usual.
Still, Eriko is keenly watching as Yanagi goes through the cognitive goods. Most of them are Sumaru demon related, but there's a few pieces from dark hour shadows- but nothing from the metaverse so far. She is entirely too interested in what pieces Yanagi is focusing on. in which ones she thinks are viable. After all, Eriko is very interested in the process.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"I used to visit her every so often too," Masao says of their time in the Mikage Hospital. "We weren't in the same class, but... it's good when ya got someone who cares about how you're doin', y'know? Though," rubbing his head again, "guess I didn't really talk 'bout that much with everyone else, huh."
As the whole deal about the Peace Diner bet happened, Masao flinches with a 'hey, c'mon,' waving a hand dismissively, but then, "though I'm gonna be honest, that day was the best Peace Burger meal I ever had... 'cause it was one of the only days the damn register would work."
"But still... glad to hear things've gotten a lot better for both of you," regarding Yanagi and Maki. But, there's teh matter of 'a man named Kandori,' and Masao's poker face does not hold as he flinches from that.
"That's a name I never wanna hear again," he shakes his head, "and... yeah... Eriko says it a hell of a lot better than I can." He wants to shout some English profanities. They're sharp, they're concise, and highly shoutable.
"...But, yeah, time of my life in New York! And I'm still what I always said I was gonna be, an artist! I got commissioned for a few pieces already, like for that festival before they closed down the park... hey, yeah, I'll share some pictures after you're done with that stuff."
"'cause I know better than to get in the way of a jeweler when inspiration is strikin', yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
So much for leaving out embarrassing lost bets! Yanagi giggles when Eriko recounts that part of the Persona Game. "A lesson well learned!" She pauses at the strain that enters Eriko's smile, but it's a momentary thing, so she doesn't remark on it. "You've been busy, I take it? Well." She looks down at the cognitive goods with a smile. "That much is plain, at least." She brightens as Eriko moves on. "Likewise! But then, if you're a Persona User, you would have found our boutique sooner or later, so the odds are fairly good, actually. I think. Math isn't my strong suit..."
But she does know her stuff when it comes to cognitive materials--especially as a Navigator-type. All of the goods have some value, and Yanagi will give her and Mark money for all of them, but for goods to fashion into accessories, she's more discerning. Dark Hour Shadows occasionally drop jewels, and she marks those in particular, but there's also coils and wires of different types of metals that she sets aside too.
Her gaze softens when Masao brings up his visits. "Yes. It was very kind of you to stop by from time to time, Masao," she says. "We weren't close, and I'm sure you were really there for Maki, but you didn't forget me, either." Abruptly, she wonders if maybe that was part of the reason why Maki didn't want anything to do with her back then...
But that doesn't matter, so she moves on. "I missed that entire incident, myself. I was taken out of the hospital and moved somewhere else right before it happened," she remarks. She's about to call it a coincidence, but then she pauses and frowns. Was it a coincidence? Maybe not. She shakes her head, though, because it doesn't matter either. She nods once when the two of them react to Kandori and admit to their involvement. "I see. He sounds like he was a wretched man better off forgotten, so I won't bring him up again."
Shinjo, on the other hand... But Yanagi doesn't know about him. Instead, she brightens as Masao talks about his commissions. "Oh, how lovely! I'm so happy for you!" She giggles again, and picks out some of the more favorable goods. "You flatter me! But I don't hate it. I'd love to see your pieces, but we can save that for later. Look at these--"
She presents the coils and wires and jewels she's picked out. "Materials like these are the easiest to make into accessories. The exact process is a trade secret, I'm afraid, but in short, I can merge these materials together to draw out their latent power. Copper wire and rose quartz like these will make a fine bangle to help raise your luck and magic, while these pieces of labradorite will give you some minor special abilities--set them in pewter and they'll increase your defense as well!" She gestures at a glass display next to her station; several jewelry pieces are there already. "You can take a look at these for reference to see if there's anything similar you'd like. Just let me know!"
Granted, the accessories will cost money even after they've sold off the materials, but with all the other materials they're selling off, that probably won't be an issue.
<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.
Eriko nods as Mark explains how he knew Yanagi in the hospital, listening intently. She can understand both Yanagi's analysis of Mark's visit- but also that by and large Mark is a good guy. At least in her experience.
Eriko giggles again as Masao lays out the criteria for the 'best Peace Diner meal ever'.
...Also that's unfortunately a name Mark will have to hear a lot if Kei's investigation bears fruit, but that's neither here nor there.
"It's true, Persona users do seem to be drawn to each other. And it seems there's enough of them to support a business or two these days!" Eriko giggles again at the joke that isn't such a joke.
"I see... I hope that moving was good for you, at least." Eriko, personally, would not have missed the incident for the world, but there's many a reason she isn't sharing details.
"He walked the path he did to the end, and stepped on many others in the process." Still... she wouldn't have wished what the Crawling Chaos did to him on anyone else.
Still, Yanagi pulls out the best tools she's indicating- luck and magic, special abilities... the interaction with pewter, it's very interesting. When Yanagi says it's a trade secret, though, she pouts a little. "Oh, that's a shame. I would have loved to see you work! Especially if your persona is involved..." She sighs, but nods. "I understand, though. We all have things we can't share."
Still, looking at the materials and examples, Eriko muses. "...Well, design wise I'd want it to go with this outfit- otherwise the fact that it doesn't match might alert someone to it's significance... Maybe a bracelet of some form? I think that would suit, without giving things away, and is easy enough to slip into a purse in case you need it in a hurry..." Eriko is, of course, considering the aesthetic, the practical, and the supernatural in her designs. "In terms of capabilities, though... Hmm, is there anything suitably darkness attuned you can use?" In one way, it's giving away Nike's weakness, but in the same vein, Yanagi is a navigator. She could probably find out if she wanted. "I'm not sure there's a gemstone that would fit, but I am rather sick of certain demons..."
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Masao whistles at the mention of the near-miss of the whole ordeal. "I'm glad you've been okay since. I'd be lyin' if I weren't worried thinking about it." Everyone processes their trauma and experiences differently. He can only nod solemnly at the idea that Kandori's better off forgotten, and if Kei comes out of nowhere and goes 'hello, guess what,' well. That will be a day.
But that day isn't today! It's a surprising reunion with an old friend, and, he listens intently to the explanations. "The pewter sounds great, yeah... and you're not wrong, sure feels like a whole lot of us Persona-users've been running into one another more and more."
He's thinking along those lines as he peruses what's there, but--
'...but I am rather sick of certain demons...'
Masao breaks out laughing. "Never thought I'd hear the day you'd say that!" He trails off. "...No, it really has to be that nasty, huh. I shouldn't laugh at that." A hand to his head, again, because there sure has been a lot of strange, terrible, frightening things happening in rapid succession around Sumaru City alone. Tokyo sounds like it's got its own bullshit to sort through, too, on that front.
...It's a nice day to catch up with friends, and put serious thought into getting new equipment to take into the next brush with the supernatural that just can't seem to stay out of anyone's way.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Moving was not good for her, and she has only been okay relatively recently, but Yanagi doesn't share that with Eriko or Masao. It's a long and complicated story. Instead, she giggles at the not-joke about multiple Persona User-run business. "So true!"
"Pewter and labradorite for you, then, and..." Yanagi looks from Masao to Eriko. Something to help defend against darkness... "Hmmm, not in what you've given me here, but we have materials for that right now." A bracelet that would match the outfit Eriko's got on now... Yanagi inspects her outfit closely, noting the yellows and blacks, then nods. "I can do that! I'll give you an estimate of what it'll cost, and if you're agreeable with it, we can decide on the final price once it's ready. For now, I'll pay you two for these goods!"
Once money is exchanged for cognitive goods, Yanagi will give Eriko and Masao estimates for their orders. Eriko's is pricy--honestly, they both are, but Eriko's moreso--but honestly, this haul by itself covers most of the cost. Another similar haul and they'll be set.