2026-01-14: A Nice Brisk Jog
- Log: 2026-01-14: A Nice Brisk Jog
- Cast: Hitomi Mandai, Akihiko Sanada
- Where: Tatami Port Island, Moonlight Bridge
- OOC Date: January 14, 2026
- IC Date: September 10, 2012
- Summary: Akihiko invites Hitomi out for a jog, with ulterior motives. It ends up being turned around on him.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
EARLIER
Hitomi Mandai, still in the summer uniform, walks leisurely from Gekkoukan proper back towards the dorm. She even has a snow cone! It's still pretty hot, after all, even if it's those heartbreaking waning days as the nights begin to lengthen and the heat begins to cool. Even if you might be hard pressed to tell in the southern parts of Japan, it is a true statement.
A call is heard. Hitomi turns her head, mouth still very slightly open as she swirls up more sauce-blessed ice shavings and pop them into her mouth.
"A jog?" she asks.
*munch* *crunch*
"But why?"
NOW
"*huff* *huff*"
That's what you SOUND LIKE, HITOMI
Hitomi's snow cone is gone, having been hurriedly eaten despite the resulting frost-based injury to her brain - Jack Frost's revenge for all those KILLINGS! There had at least been the grace of a quick dip into the dormitory where Hitomi threw on the remaining clean T-shirt suitable for something athletics along with a pair of shorts that she had, frankly, expected to store up against the long winter ahead (normally you don't wear shorts in winter, after all). Instead...
Well, this is happening.
JOG TIME
"*wheeze*"
Hitomi's running is energetic. She made pretty good time, though a lot of that is just having long legs and a certain amount of momentum once she got started. Coming to a stop at a crossing, she had leaned against the pole. After that, though, the torment continued!!
"I have *wheeze* I have to - take - a moment - a-are we seriously gonna cross - ugh," Hitomi says, staggering against the side of the pedestrian walkway, panting vigorously. She is soaked with sweat, which happens to her a lot as it *is*. Now, though, she's slumping against the walkway barrier, sinking to her knees, and afterwards to a full seat, flopping backwards as if she would like to melt into the walk's flooring and, perhaps, reach the sea... and freedom.
From training.
She doesn't, of course.
"I'm - not gonna die - right, sempai?" Hitomi finally says, as we elide a certain amount of further *gasp*, *huff*, *pant pant pant*, *wheeze*, and assorted other minor exclamations of fatigue.
"haha - ugh - I think I died like - a hundred meters back actually -"
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
EARLIER
"Yo, Mandai-san!" Akihiko calls to Hitomi, one of his juniors in SEES he spotted walking home from school. He remembers Hitomi not using her evoker after the trip... And that's pretty damn interesting. "Care for a jog with me?"
A beat.
"Come on, it'll be fun." He smiles. "It's good to stay in shape. You know, for our extra-curriculars?"
NOW
Akihiko, the conscientious young man he is, has stayed maybe a 4 yards in front of Hitomi. He keeps having to look back, just to make sure he isn't leaving the girl in the dust
They reach a crossing, and Hitomi collapses against the electrical pole. He watches in wonder as she struggles towards the barrier, apparently completely out of energy. He feels a little bad by now!
"No, I don't think you're going to die, Mandai-san." Akihiko says kindly. He takes a seat near Hitomi. "Focus on your breathing. You may have pushed yourself too hard."
"And here." Akihiko takes his waist water bottle, cracks it open, and offers it. "Especially in this heat, it's important to stay hydrated!"
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
EARLIER
"Oh... right... I guess I do need to get a little faster, huh."
NOW
"I can see it," Hitomi pants. "The between lives realm. Ah~ I'm surrounded by clear light~"
She's still panting for breath though she's, you know, forming complete sentences. She hears what Akihiko says - the panting turns into gripping, gulping breaths - and after like four or five of them, it... relaxes. *She* relaxes. Her eyes turn abruptly to the proffered water bottle, and
YOINK
"Sorry," she says, before tilting her head back and pouring enough into her mouth to fill it! She actually has to swallow twice - handing it back afterwards, the bottle *notably* having never touched her actual mouth. Was this a secret training?
"It's. I think I just. Need to stop. Fwah. Can we like. Walk back? Or do we need to. Run. Whooh," Hitomi says, bringing up a hand to sweep back some of her long messy hair that had escaped the binding of a thick ponytail. "It's - not so bad now - haha. Oh geez I must look gross... uh... um! So you do this a - lot?"
Hitomi takes off her glasses and looks down at herself in order to find a patch of shirt without sweat on it. This turns out to be her right sleeve, which requires some focused wiggling.
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
Akihiko chuckles lightly too. "At least you can still joke, Mandai-san. You aren't doing too badly."
He doesn't mind the yoink either. That was the offer, after all. He finds it amusing, at least. And honestly, Akihiko's impressed with how Hitomi drinks without even touching her lips to it. "Don't worry about it. I'd worry that running will wipe you out entirely..." Hmmm. What to do then...
He taps his knee a bit, thinking about what would be the smoothest trip back. "Once you're got your breath back, we can get to the tram and walk back to the dorm?" Maybe they went out too far for a first time run...
Honestly, Akihiko doesn't mind the appearances at all. It's none of his business at least. "I do, a lot. It makes for great cardio. And having stamina helps fighting in Tartarus a lot." He smiles lightly. Honestly, he wasn't sure if anyone in SEES wasn't aware of his training habits.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi's breathing is still heaving but she does seem less spent. Must be short-term lactic acid buildup or something. She purses her lips then, and tilts her head down. "... I haven't run except, like, to class since..."
"I was a lot smaller," Hitomi concludes, with a wan smile. "Except that one time, I guess. -- Oh, sure," Hitomi says, visibly brightening at the prospect of a shorter route home.
But she still isn't getting up yet.
Hitomi does lean forwards, bringing up her other leg and resting her arms top them, back against the post or wall or barricade or whatever the word is for the dingus, adjusting her glasses with the back of her thumb.
"... It was kinda fun, though," she huffs, much nearer already to normal-voice-Hitomi.
"Hey, though... can I ask you something?"
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
Akihiko starts to wonder if there's a story behind that pause, but he decides not to press. Not right now, anyways. "Not even in gym class? No sports?" Akihiko asks. Or maybe gym class is on the lighter side of things, he supposes.
He smiles too, upon seeing Hitomi brighten up. And there's no rush to climb back up, yet. Plenty of time in the day. He still remembers when a 'short jog' like this one would send him out. "At least we get to take the train to Gekkoukan every day. Not a bad deal, if you ask me."
Akihiko smiles way more, with the admission that it was fun. "Yeah? You're more than free to join me again in the future, you know." He says. "An active lifestyle really does lead to a lot of benefits. Helps in school even too."
Ah, a question... "Shoot, Mandai-san. Anything you like."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"Well... I think I think it's fun because..." Hitomi begins to answer, before she's given a challenge.
Her eyes brighten. "Anything...~?" That pause there was because despite that sudden surreptiously sly lilt in her voice, Hitomi is still recovering. Her cheeks puff out for a moment as she looks away from Akihiko, towards her shoulder. Over it, towards the sea.
".... so..."
"When we were on Yakushima, and we had that meeting and everything with Mitsuru's father," Hitomi says, and it might be a minor note that she does just go ahead and drop the first name on that one, "it came out about... Yukari, and everything with her dad, right? And how he was involved in..."
The Dark Hour, she doesn't say.
"... but," Hitomi says, "what I didn't understand is... Okay, like, if you want to just say 'don't want to get into it,' I'm not offended or anything, I'll drop it..."
"How did you get involved with all this?"
BBS: New BB message (2/126) posted to 'Announcements' by Junes: Upgrade to +cards
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
The sly lilt briefly causes a strike of fear through Akihiko. Women are scary... He coughs into his hand and shakes his head. "Anything reasonable, please."
Hitomi talks, and Akihiko listens intently. Watching as Hitomi is illuminated by the sea.
There's the finish, the question. Akihiko smirks. "Easy. Mitsuru recruited me to it." Mitsuru and Shinjiro are the two people he refers purely by their first name. "Imagine this. Some rich girl approaches you at evening, hands you a gun, and tells you it will answer everything about the hour after midnight, what would you think? I thought she was nutty." Akihiko chuckles, as he looks over the sea. "But she did give me an answer. We've been friends ever since."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Hitomi glances over for a moment when the secret is revealed.
Which isn't much of a secret at all!!!! What did she expect, a ninja bloodline? Esper powers? A rubber biscuit?? Maybe she was hoping.
She looks back over the ocean again. "... So it was just like that, huh. They just sorta found you and you were in it to win it."
Hitomi takes a deep breath and lets it out. "That's so funny," she says then, still gazing outwards; and she's nearly at normal-breathing rates. "I was thinking... I mean, when I saw... her, Aigis, I was like, shit, everything's on the table. Spaceships to the Moon, giant robots, vampires, werewolves, demons..."
"I guess demons are real, at least," Hitomi muses.
Her head turns slightly. "So... you were already seeing the Dark Hour before then?"
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
"Yup. Me and my brother, Shinji." Akihiko laughs a little. It really does sound ridiculous, saying it back again. "At that point, I was already the undefeated boxing champion. SEES has given me so many chances to grow stronger, and to test myself. And help others."
Akihiko nods. It really does feel like everything's on the table now. Manifestations of human creativity, bravery, heroics, brought to life, to fight off creatures of the dark. Compared to that, a Gundam or moon rabbits might even seem pedestrian. "Something like that, anyways. And the strength to fight the demons."
Akihiko nods. "I was. The Envoker gave me the chance to fight the shadows."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"... Wait," Hitomi says, squinting a little and looking away from the ocean and upwards to Akihiko. "You're brothers? You mean Aragaki or nah?" There might be a lot of other names out there. Other brothers. Brothers, Hitomi has learned, *are dangerous topics*
"I nearly got eaten," Hitomi says, shifting herself to rest her chin on her knee. "So I guess I can relate. I was just wondering, since like, you were *awake* but didn't have an Evoker yet. And I didn't see the Dark Hour at all before, everything."
probably related to the eating.
"I just wonder," Hitomi says, "what all the rules are, I guess."
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
"Aragaki, yeah. Well, not by blood or anything. But essentially, yes." Akihiko laughs."We grew up in the same orphange, and have known each other since forever." It's not a sensitive topic, at least. Even if their relationship is deeply complicated.
Akihiko nods, and shrugs a little bit. "I don't know what the rules are, either. It's tough to say anything for certain, especially when everything is so touch and go." Akihiko says. "Even our theory on full moon shadows can change at any minute. We just have to stay on our toes, and roll with the punches."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
'the same orphanage'
Hitomi's head tilts upwards slightly. Her eyes thin for a moment.
"Ah," she says.
She takes a deep breath and pushes it out through her lips.
"I mean, you're right, but, you sound like my dad when you put it like that..."
Hitomi reaches over to the post and starts to push herself up.
"I just don't like playing a game I don't know all the rules for, you know? Maybe that's just me being arrogant, though."
Her hands rest on her hips then, still looking out at the water.
"How long were you seeing it, before they came to you?"
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
Akihiko takes it on the chin. He chuckles lightly, and scratches the back of his head. "We can't always affect the things we want to, I mean. We do what we're able to."
Akihiko remains sitting for now. He watches the waves float by. "Don't get me wrong. We're doing this to understand the Dark Hour better. And to help everyone we can, as we figure out a way to end it."
Akihiko shrugs a little. He almost enjoys all of the fighting. The challenges and the struggles. Piecing the answers together with his friends. It'd earn him a bad look from Mitsuru and Yukari, but...
"A month, or two maybe. I don't really remember. I just survived somehow. Helped that I was strong at that point. It was Polydeuces that let me kill them."
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
There's a long quiet pause from Hitomi as she watches the sea and listens to Akihiko. Standing here aloft in the air, held by tensed steel. She purses her lips for a moment. Her arm comes over her waist.
"So you were really strong, even before you used your Persona?" Hitomi asks, turning her head a little.
"... I wasn't strong at all," Hitomi continues, turning back, "but I was pretty lucky, in the end. I guess luck just can't carry you all the way, can it?"
She takes a deep breath... and then sighs at something in particular. "I think I'm ready to keep going... though uh... is it alright if we just walk the rest of the way to the tram? I already feel gross and sweaty enough."
<Pose Tracker> Akihiko Sanada has posed.
The breeze is really nice. Akihiko usually enjoys it as he jobs by, but maybe... sitting still for a moment isn't too bad, really.
"I was obsessed with getting stronger, back then. I hit the top of my peers at the time. And was itching for something that could challenge me." Akihiko smiles lightly. "Yeah. Luck can be a strength all on it's own, but strength will never betray you." He has to believe that. He has to.
With that, Akihiko rises to his feet. "Of course. Next time, we'll do some runs around the dorm." He laughs a little at that. "C'mon, we can make a stop for some ice cream too." Jeez, he's gonna reverse all of the progress they made!
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"If I get stronger, am I going to sweat less?" Hitomi asks, a little flatly.
She then makes a little fist-pump at the mention of ice cream. *two desserts*
(muscle takes protein! ice cream has like, milk in it. right? right??)