2026-01-26: Anime Ja Nai
- Log: Anime Ja Nai
- Cast: Isabeau Fontaine, Shinichi Nagisa
- Where: Aoyama-Itchome Station
- OOC Date: 2026-01-26
- IC Date: Sun, Sep 16 2012
- Summary: Isabeau runs into Shinichi on her way to catch the train, and decides to investigate whether he's really as spineless as they say. Unfortunately, it's all true... and Isabeau took that personally.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
You don't just wear scrubs to the hospital. That feels misleading. He's not a professional, he's just a volunteer with a CPR card that sometimes takes vital signs when they need extra help.
But mostly he transports people back and forth in chairs, on stretchers- and talks to people who need someone to talk to.
So instead of scrubs right now he's in a light track jacket that's unzipped just below the neck, and a hint of an old sports manga shirt with the words 'PINCH HIT!' barely visible.
He's wearing a pair of jeans, as well as some worn out looking sneakers, with a bag over his shoulder-
And...
Currently he's flipping through some flyers on a job board at the Aoyoma-Itchome Station, while he waits on his train. An announcement is playing overhead:
"The One-Fifteen to Shibuya Station on the Ginza Line will be delayed for at least another twenty minutes. We offer our most sincere apologies."
It's fine, he was leaving early anyway and as a volunteer they don't really mind so much if he's there a little late either.
It's just him going through them one by one, because he doesn't have anything better to do while waiting. Though it's not as if he's uninterested either. He'll need to start earning his way through the world soon, whether he's ready for his career or not...
Flip.
Flip.
Flip.
Unfortunately, being on the taller side with red hair, he tends to stand out even when doing this.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Flip, flip, flip...
"Eeeeh?"
What's that horrible, grating noise behind him? It belongs to a heavyset girl with bangs as tightly curled as drills, the rest of her curly hair pulled up into a ponytail over her tennis visor. Isabeau Fontaine -- one of the WORST girls in their entire YEAR -- stands behind him, a hand on her broad hip. Her jean shorts and blouse are well-suited to sportiness, and her backpack's buckled around her belly, not just secured over her shoulders.
"I know you... you are that pushover a few doors away!" Her Japanese is a touch stilted -- a little too textbook. She's a foreign exchange student, but she clearly hasn't been speaking the language for nearly long enough. "Eh-to, eh-to, Nagisa, that is what they call you?" And she just -- says his name yobisute even though she's never even met him before!
"You are trying to get a job?" She exclaims, as she steps forward and snatches the flyer right out of his hand. Holding it up, she... scowls. Squints, a little. And then --
-- balls it all up and tosses it over her shoulder.
"What is your," what's the word for qualification, "fitness to serve food to customers?" She demands, and the funny thing about that is... it was a position for a role in the kitchen. But, like, the pictures were of a restaurant, so she must have just assumed it was a table-waiting job...?
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
He'd heard of Isabeau's reputation, not only from Kanae but from other people too, he always figured it was exaggerated at least. Of course, he doesn't have any ESP, so he doesn't spy her standing right behind him.
'I know you... you are that pushover a few doors away!'
"Huh?" He sounds confused by the stilted Japanese, as he turns around, half-expecting some foreign girl to be hitting him up for directions on what train line to use and just got some of the words wrong.
Instead he's somewhat surprised to see someone who seems vaguely familliar. "Ah." He gets caught on that utterance, like his brain is trying to catch up to the new conclusion. "... Yeah that's me."
He agrees, in a neutral tone. "And you're Fontaine-san?" He asks, "From the Tennis Team..." 'You are trying to get a job?' And then she grabs the flyer out of his hand, balling it up and throwing it over her shoulder.
"What-ah..." He considers the action, before trying to say in a mollifying tone, "Uh, you shouldn't litter in Japan. It's really frowned upon..."
Like he's both trying to deescalate, and adding a helpful tip too. But it's not like he doesn't understand what this is now.
He then tries to like, move around her, like he's going to pick up the balled up flyer, bowing with a murmured 'Sumimasen' several times as others on the platform stare.
If she lets him, he picks it back up, before then turning around. He doesn't immediately move to any trash receptacle though, instead furrowing his brow, "Well it'd be my first real job, so none really, though I've helped deliver trays before." He keeps his hands balled around the wadded up flier, "I think I'd do okay, with a little training."
Don't rise to it
She'll get bored and go away
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Does Isabeau ever get on the wrong train because she can't read these stupid signs quick enough? No, and also, shut up. She's late because she wants to be late and for no other reason.
... she's certainly too proud to ask for directions.
"I am top player of the Tennis Team, yes," Isabeau clarifies, with a haughty sniff. "Isabeau Fontaine."
Shinichi tells her not to litter, though, and Isabeau tosses her curls over her shoulder with a loose gesture. "Do I care? You people are too clean on the outside. It does not cover the rot inside you." She at least turns to face him, again, as he ducks down to try and snatch the paper up.
"Pitiful," she mutters, as she watches him. Her broad arms fold, across her chest. (They're not just big: those are some big muscles under there, too. They say the one class a foreigner like that is really good at is PE...)
"A dozen people demand your attention. All scream at you. All are furious, after their working day. You think you would do well here?" Isabeau remembers how humiliating it always is -- helping out at Eve's when it's busy, not even being able to recognise half those shouted orders across the din, having to force everyone to repeat themselves or write their orders down themself. She insists on helping, anyway. She's not so weak as to be unable to handle something as simple as bussing tables.
She doesn't say it's a word of advice, nose turning up as she sneers at him: "They will eat you alive, Nagisa."
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"Uhhh... I mean, I think it depends on who you ask." He replies awkwardly, "I hear it's you from some, Fuyuki-san from others. Though it's not like I've caught a tournament or anything to have an opinion on it myself."
Hanging around watching other people play just tends to depress him.
'It does not cover the rot inside you.'
He exhales slowly at that one, because it hits home. His expression just falls.
He listens to her upbraid him on the demands of being a server. On trying to provide for so many people.
"Right..." He clears his throat, "...you might be right."
On eating him alive as he murmurs back, "I'm not sure what you want me to say though? There aren't many other jobs out there for someone with no real experience."
If he could get some qualifications, he thinks the hospital will hire him, but those are years away... he doesn't want to be some leech on his parents forever.
They deserve better than being burdened by paying the way of someone like him.
"Do you have some kind of... recommendation, then?" He asks, with awkwardness permeating every word.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Kanae?! Tchah!" Isabeau's tongue clicks to her teeth, and her exclamation is far too boisterous for a public place. People are looking at them, it's mortifying. "She is clearly second placed! All I can say of her is that she is better than the rest of those casuals! She does not practice for four hours every Saturday and Sunday, and that is to leave alone how she cannot even muster two hours on weekdays! This is only my schedule when I must attend classes, too!"
Isabeau basically just admitted she doesn't really have a life there, but never mind that. What matters is that she's absolutely the best at tennis.
"Of course I am right," she 'harrumph's. "Finally, someone listens to me. Who knew you were good for something!" He even asks for her advice, and...
Isabeau actually looks a little surprised, at that, though she gets a hold of herself a moment later. "Obviously! Hmph, if you care so much about the outer tidiness of a place, you ought to apply as a cleaner! You do not seem fit," and she actually meant 'not fit', but she got mixed up by the double negative of her sentence, "so keeping fit the lawn or the garden would suit you as well. Hmh, or... stocking grocery shelves? You are tall enough for that." Even Isabeau has to look up a few inches at him. "What you do, you will want to avoid people doing it. You are someone who will bend to everyone. In France, we do not say the customer is always right. The customer is in fact a moron! Here, you Japanese do not stand up for the sanc-- uh-- the quality of your products, you bend to any demand."
She examines her nails, for a moment, before looking over to Shinichi.
"Though," she supposes, "that may suit you perfectly."
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
There's an understanding immediately that he miscalculated there. Usually he's used to thinking of rivalries as being ones where it has good sportsmanship involved.
Not this.
"That's pretty dedicated though..." He hesitates to give this advice, but at the same time he is actually concerned, "...careful you don't overtrain going solo. Can really hurt yourself."
Unfortunately, it's the worst person to try to give advice to, in all of Tokyo. Well not really but she's up there!
'Of course I am right,'
'Finally, someone listens to me.'
'Who knew you were good for something!'
His fingertips spasm around the paper, like it's a stress ball. He already knows he's not good for anything. It's why he tried so hard to be useful - reliable. So he would be...
"Huh... like a House Cleaner or something?" He seems to actually be considering it, "I guess that'd suit me pretty well." He doesn't mind cleaning. In fact he gets stuck with the duty pretty often at class, and finds it fairly calming.
Calming enough that he sometimes just does it so his Mom doesn't have to worry about it when she gets home from work.
He's not sure about taking care of a garden or anything - though cutting grass? Lawncare? Yeah he can do that. The care aspect of it has a certain appeal but...
... he'd be too stressed over it dying in the trial and error phase of learning. "Hmm." Tall for grocery shelves. "I don't really want to avoid people though..." He says, of it.
"That's... really how the French think? Uhhh... I dunno, here in Japan, people really expect omotenashi..."
Especially in the hospital. It's actually why he fits in pretty well there.
"I don't think it'd work out if you tried to... tell customers things like that..." He says, as he trails off.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"I was practicing for eight hours a day," Isabeau sniffs, as haughty as ever. "Of course, then school started again... and I adapted my training on the advice of an Olympian." Wow, Isabeau knows an Olympian well enough to get advice?! "Any-way, my team is free to join me in training whenever they get tired of being bad."
Sometimes Kanae even does!
"That is why I said it," she insists, her hands coming to rest on her hips again. "You could have fooled me, beside that. Do you not wish for every interaction to end with the way you cringe and agree, agree, agree?" Isabeau points -- how rude! -- to Shinichi. "I have heard the stories. You are the one who cleans your classroom all the time. The people who call you reliable to your face say you are easily pushed over behind you."
She flips her hair, a second time. "In France, we know that an artisan knows his work better than the man buying from him. If a customer orders a steak well-done, the chef is right to say it is a waste of meat! If a customer is cooking boeuf bourguignon, the wine seller will not give him his best Bordeux! The customer will listen to the expert if he has sense. This is how life should be."
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
An Olympian?
His eyes go a little bug-eyed at that one, "It wasn't... Kamoshida-sensei, right?" He's not certain even if it's not, that it's still a good thing. He's heard about Olympic training regimens which do get people there, sure, but then leave them in a poor state for adulthood. In girls in particular...
... but he's not gonna bring that up. It's not like he knows more than an Olympian, definitely not.
"Uh. I... well. No. It's just, I don't dislike talking to people either? I like to listen to their problems and..."
Wow this is awkward. He has to force himself to be agreeable with teenagers who go out of their way to bother him.
With adults at least, he rarely has this problem.
There's a shuffle of his feet as she calls him out for cleaning his class, "I don't get what's wrong with it? People get busy... but someone has to do it, right?"
And that someone might as well be him.
Isabeau relates to him however the French attitude, and Shinichi seems a little aghast in his expression at first, but then he gets somewhat thoughtful, "I guess it makes a certain amount of sense. People sometimes ask me to fix something when, they don't even know what's really broken..."
In those circumstances he just agrees then, fixes the actual problem without saying anything. There's no reason to flex on people with him knowing those kinds of things. Just the real problem being fixed is enough.
"But it's not Japanese artisans can't be like that too? Like, you ever seen those specials on calligraphy brush makers or blacksmiths? They can be really particular, and no one is going to tell them they're wrong because we trust they're experts... we're mostly talking about service and hospitality jobs."
It's perhaps a distinction that's unwise to point out, but he does it anyway because it's a matter of trying to get Isabeau to fit into Japanese culture.
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. It's just, in his case, being a terrible person caused the world to do so a little more literally...
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Of course not!" Isabeau huffs. "The woman I spoke to was Miho Ijuuin! She won two gold medals at the Olympics this year! Both group and individual saber womens!" She mixes up her word order a little, but don't worry about that. If she were talking to Miho about this, she could just speak French, she sounds so much smarter in French...
"Listen to their problems and what? What?" Isabeau demands, folding her arms, again. "If you were finding the weakness of everyone to destroy them later, I could respect it. You would not be so smart, I think."
Her fingers drum, against her arm. "Could it be that you are looking down on them?" She wonders, raising a brow. "Someone has to do it, and they will not do it, but you, you always are willing to do what must be done."
He fixes things. "Hm," Isabeau grunts. "Are you then fixing people, too? How arrogant."
And she scowls, when Shinichi insists he's talking about hospitality jobs. "Do you say, then," she asks, stepping forward and unfolding her arms, "that the owners of bars and bistros do not hold -- do not have that same quality? Is a request not important because it is a thing normal people have?" Backing him up to one of those stone pillars, she slams her palm against the polished surface. "Do you value that experience not at all?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"Oh. Well... alright."
He was just worried that with Kamoshida in school, and so heavily involved in the sports program that he hadn't targeted Isabeau too.
He heard that he preferred 'exotic' looking girls with some Western heritage, hafus but... well it's a good thing not. That'd be terrible.
"Well, to try and support them. Sometimes it helps just to know someone is listening at all..." He looks absolutely startled at the thought of listening to someone's problems only to take advantage of them and hurt them, "Why would I want to do that? Who would even do that?"
He knows some girls can be a little like that, but- he can't imagine them just saying it so blatantly, like it's a strategy you plan to do! Rather than just something that happens...
... even at his worst... he never listened to her problems just for ammunition.
"Wha- no!" That's perhaps the most animated he's looked about this, even taking a step back, "I'm not looking down on them at all. I just figure it's taking one more thing off everybody's plate..."
I mean he has a certain amount of pride in doing the job right... or being appreciated for it. And maybe sometimes he sighs about it when it's obvious someone doesn't have a good reason for pushing stuff onto him.
But it's hard to resent someone like that, when you know deep down you're far worse a person than any of them, no matter how petty their reasons seem for acting like that.
"It's not like that." He stands up a tad straighter, "I'm not trying to fix anyone- just if I can help them shoulder some of the burden. What's wrong with that?"
One might suspect a guy like this of being like that to get in good with girls or something, but Isabeau certainly hasn't heard of him having a girlfriend at Shujin.
Indeed, as she steps towards him, he holds up his hands like 'chill, chill' but does get backed against the pillar. His eyes going wide as she slams her palm against the surface.
Does she even know how this will look to everyone!?
"H-Hey no need to- people are going to see this as..."
Look he'd seen this happen in anime to girls, and maybe occasionally guys, but- he never thought he'd see it in real life.
There's no way she's doing this because she LIKES him though. There's too much contempt, he at least realizes that there's no way tsunderes exist in real life.
Right?
"No it's - we're talking service jobs. If you're upset with it, you don't storm back and scold the cook. You complain to the server."
He swallows.
"You're... getting really intense about this."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Oh, Kamoshida was interested. Isabeau realised that the minute she threw her barbs at him, and his response came with an expression far too unprofessional.
She declined to join the Volleyball Team at his invitation.
For this reason, she did not attend any sports club until after it was done -- and Kanae dragged her back in.
... but Isabeau isn't about to talk about an unsettling experience like that with a doormat like this.
"Everyone," Isabeau states, quite bluntly, "except for the ones who are being taken advantage of by those people. That is you, I suppose? Tough luck for you! I do not have problems."
Isabeau is far too strong to be troubled by anything -- and if ever she was, she could handle it on her own.
"So it is greed which drives you?" Isabeau wonders. "To have a plate bigger than anyone else?" She takes another step forward. "To take their burdens from them and prove your back strongest? Do you truly believe the people around you cannot carry a thing?"
Isabeau pokes a finger into Shinichi's chest, scowling. "You think they will save you? Your people do not like to rock the ship." Boat, Isabeau. The expression is 'rock the boat'. "They will pretend they do not see, and talk badly about you when you cannot hear."
Her scowl deepens, as she gestures, broadly, with her free hand. "You think that servers do not understand the food they serve? You think this is mindless work, that they do not speak to the ones who prepare this? You act as if you are so kind, but you are hollow as the rest of them!"
She barks, her voice raising a little more: "I would rather to be intense than not passionate!"
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"I..." He looks flabbergasted at the idea everyone does it, 'except for the ones who are being taken advantage of by those people.' "That doesn't sound... I'm not sure that many people are like that."
Like, even the guys who treat him terribly don't ask him questions to listen for weaknesses. Even most of the bullies he knew as a kid were more straightforward about it.
His eyes dart from side to side, because he knows how this looks like. And he's trapped. He won't let himself get physical with a girl just to avoid a situation. That would make him even worse scum than he already is.
"N-No, nothing like that at all! I just do it because... I want to."
He's not going to explain. He can't. It's a secret he's kept for years, which is proof enough of how terrible he is.
If he was any real man at all, he'd just say it, and face the consequences.
"T-That's not what I'm saying it's..." His eyes move over to her hand against the wall, even as she pokes his chest and he flinches, turning a few shades redder on his face, "... what you're doing is in anime. It's called kabedon. It's done when someone likes someone and gets pretty... aggressive about it. Usually a guy to a girl..."
He even feels embarrassed saying it! But he doesn't think she deserves being associated with having a crush on him of all people!
"... I just don't want people to get the wrong idea about- you know?"
Keep it under control
It's not like she's really going to hurt you
Don't do anything you'll regret
"L-Look I'm sorry, I said it without thinking... I don't want any trouble."
Hollow. Maybe she's right.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"I am sure that makes your misuse easier to live with," Isabeau snorts, derisively.
Is she, perhaps, a bull trapped in girl's form? Is Shinichi wearing red, somehow...?
She looks all the more irritated when he insists that he wants to. "Oh, as if you are such a good person!" She snaps, angrily, and it at least proves she can't read his thoughts -- despite some of the claims she's made to her power.
She's a witch, you know. She speaks to ghosts, and she can curse you where you stand...
He's turning red, though, and the corner of Isabeau's lip curls up in a sneer. "Anime? What kind of child watches cartoons when their age is counted with two numbers? Do you really believe anyone is taking their lessons from children television?"
Her tongue clicks to her teeth, as she scrutinises Shinichi. "Eeeehh... or is it you who is that childish? Ugh... do not tell me you are enjoying this." She straightens up, turning her back to him as her arms fold again. "Why would I be attracted to any idiot who just wants to help people and stay out of trouble? I hate that kind of person most of all!" They remind her of Kanae, and how dare they?
"I wondered if you were being put down by those voices speaking behind you... tchah! You are nothing but a worm beneath the dirt!"
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
"My... what now?" He blinks, like his mind isn't making the connection on what he's misusing. Maybe it's a linguistics error, but he's not going to say that.
She'd just get more upset at him.
"I'm not saying I am!" He must in fact be wearing red, just look. Mess with the bull - you get the horns...
"... I don't think I am. I'm just- I'm just trying to be better." He explains, feeling that's the best way he can get into it without saying too much. "There's nothing wrong with that right!?" He says, raising his voice just a little, with a hint of desperation in it, "Who would think there is?"
He hopes even this girl can understand there's nothing wrong with trying to be a better person than you were before.
But-
He doesn't have anything to say about it being childish.
"I'm not! I'm not that kind of guy!" Is his answer though to him enjoying this, as he looks down, squeezing his eyes shut.
"I wouldn't think that! I just don't want your reputation to suffer if someone gets the wrong idea! I'm not the kind of guy any girl would want to be with!"
He just blurts it out, then takes a deep breath, then another- then another. As if trying to calm himself, "Can I just- go? I think I hear the train coming finally- and there's some place I've gotta be..."
The desperation is growing, he's even just pleading for PERMISSION to be allowed to leave.
To leave before he does anything he'll regret.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"They way they use you," Isabeau explains, as if Shinichi is the idiot.
She clicks her tongue to her teeth. "I am the one who says there is something wrong with that!" She snaps. "Better, better, who decides what is better? Better to not need help! You are the worst, making people dependent on you for your help! When they need you -- when they really need you -- where will you be?! You will not be there, then! No one is there, then!" She's just -- screaming at him, now. People are definitely staring. "The only one you can rely on, when you really need it... is yourself!"
She turns her shoulder to him even more viciously, arms folded tightly across her chest. "You do not know anything about my reputation," she growls. "I know that they hate me, and why. They always have. I am, how do you say? Boar-ish?" Boorish, she means. "Here when I do not belong. I cannot wait to be rid of you. I will attend the Sorbonne, I will get out of here..."
Isabeau taps her boot onto the platform tile, irritated. "Go away," she issues him. "Run, little man. Run fast, or I will catch you. I do not forgive as easy as you do." But -- what did Shinichi even do to her?!
Isabeau's not telling.
But her teeth are grit tightly, not even deigning to look at him.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
He just wordlessly nods quickly at the explanation rather than try to refute it. There's no point, it'll just make her more upset.
"I- don't want anyone to... to..."
Unfortunately it hits close to home. Isn't wanting to be someone who people can rely upon just the same thing?
As a kid, he wanted to be reliable so he could get attention he didn't get at home. So that they'd want him around...
... is he just repeating old patterns? The same pattern that led him to... to...
What an ugly wretched person he is. And at his side his fingers curl into a fist, because as per those old patterns, he only knows one way to handle this ugliness.
It's not like this girl doesn't deserve it, not for him - but for her treating other people that way. But the horror of that thought causes his hand to fall slack again, and he just looks ashamed.
"Then be rid of me, already." He mumbles, defeated by his own knowledge of what he almost did, "It's what you want anyway."
'Run, little man.'
"... I'm going. Just- I'm going." He slips away from the pillar but rather than towards a train that isn't yet here- a lie he told, he moves quickly towards the steps out of the station, climbing them rapidly, as he gets out onto the walk.
Placing a hand over his face, he rubs them, looking as pale as a ghost, before looking up. He's definitely gonna be late, and while he doesn't need to be on time...
... doesn't need to be there at all. He feels he needs to be there right now. The only way he can make up for what he's done is by putting all of this into doing something worthwhile with his life.
It's several kilometers away to the next station. "S'fine. Just another workout. It's fine..." No way he's going by train from this one, not when this girl is there.
He'll sweat this out, and then be ready to do his best by the time he gets there.
"... It's fine." He reassures himself again, even feeling like the worst kind of scum, the least he can do is this.