2026-05-19: Crash
- Cutscene: Crash
- Cast: Ririka Kawase
- Where: Iwatodai Dorms
- OOC Date: May 19, 2026
- IC Date: Sunday, November 11, 2012 (Morning)
- Summary: Ririka has been filling up her schedule quite a bit, and the debt of all that work and stress comes to collect.
How had her planner filled up again?
Ririka frowned as she blocked out the upcoming week's worth of activities. Her desk was a microcosm of her room: her planner, phone, and notebook in a neat array at perfectly right angles, along with a small box that held her mechanical pencil, leads, eraser, and an extra mechanical pencil, just in case. In the corner, on a low table, sat a rapidly-cooling bowl of rice and a cup of tea from the breakfast she had 'shared' with her older brother Toshiaki, represented by a photograph of him in his kendo gear posing with his shinai. Her dorm room was silent, except for the scratching of pencil on paper, the music leaking out from her headphones, and the sounds of Ririka hum-singing along with the music.
She had a habit of singing or tapping along to whatever music happened to be in her head. She was embarrassed by it, and tried not to do it in public, even if it did usually make her feel better and more focused. Here in her room she didn't have to worry about anybody else hearing.
School, of course, was obvious. Band practice most days--except Wednesday and Thursday, since Hiroki had shifts in his uncle's store. Ririka started to erase them but then paused. No, Tomori still wanted to go over new lyrics. Ririka sighed and penciled Wednesday's band practice back in and added 'Lyrics' as a note. So Thursday afternoon could be ideal, but...
There was another sigh, as she blocked in two hours for piano lessons on Thursday, after her school and club hours. That meant she couldn't get out to Sumaru, so Thursday wouldn't work. And she couldn't move it because she'd already moved it from Wednesday, so she could get to Tokyo for a special rehearsal session with the Tokyo Philharmonic. That got blocked in, too. And that meant she might have to cut her lyric time with Tomori a little short so she could catch the train to Tokyo. Maybe a little less, if she was willing to wear her school uniform to practice.
Monday and Tuesday evening were already covered: a light green bar running up the side of each column. That wasn't for Ririka's time but rather Ikumi's, the latter's part-time shifts which meant Ririka wouldn't be able to see her then. Ririka glanced at the phone on her desk, still showing a text message from the other girl.
> Hey, Kawase-chan, wanna hang out this week?
Ririka had spent far more time than she wanted to admit trying to figure out how casual that tone was meant to be. Was she expecting a date? A non-date-but-potentially-date-like activity? Chilling at her dorm doing... something??? If Ririka ended up having today free, should she offer today or would that come off as too eager?
The fingers of her free hand started drumming a rhythm that went with the melody of her humming.
That left a few days as possibilities, but... Ririka sighed as she opened her notebook next, flipping to the list of assignments and responsibilities she had due. Homework had a few different blocks scheduled for it, along with time to review for upcoming tests. She needed practice time for the new material the Philharmonic was rehearsing, and her piano teacher expected perfection for a new piece, so those got longer times blocked out. One for Monday, and one for Tuesday—
Ririka frowned, and went for her other notebook, the one that didn't leave the dorm, that was only for SEES business. And there she found it: she was scheduled to go on patrol on Tuesday. Which meant she needed to get to bed a little earlier, so she could get some sleep...
With a long, reluctant sigh, she moved to the bottom of the planner and drew in a row that she labeled 'D', and a second one under that labeled '12'. She wrote in 'Patrol', and then moved her pencil above that, letting it hover. Ririka deliberated with herself over how much sleep to get: she could practice and get to bed a little later, and drink a canned coffee for patrol... Her eyes slid over to Wednesday. It was shaping up to be a long day, once she factored in travel time...
She shook her head and added more sleep rather than less, and then moved the Tuesday rehearsal section to Sunday. So much for today... She'd have to wait most of the week for a chance to see Ikumi again. While she was at it she blocked in sleep for the other nights, and then looked at her first list. There was the new material she was working on for Polychord, she wanted to get out skateboarding at some point, she should make time to go home and spend time with her parents, and when was the last time she'd gotten to hang out with Emi...
Ririka chewed her lip as she kept placing items and shuffling them around, searching for that elusive block of time she could spend with Ikumi. But as she kept working her eyes couldn't help but drift back down to the line she'd marked 'D' on the planner.
The Dark Hour. And two nights ago... they'd had a mission. The Hierophant Shadow, who had revealed itself to be hiding /in/ the cult leader Toshio Iida, who, tragically, was beyond saving. And it was the same for that poor woman who had been reduced to a mass of shadow... Ririka shuddered at the visceral memory, her stomach churning again.
Ririka couldn't help but wonder if it had been her fault. She'd gone with Minato and Moriko to investigate, she'd felt the resonance... If it had been Fuuka, would she have known what it meant? She'd managed to Awaken in the presence of /two/ Full Moon Shadows, after all, maybe she would have recognized the Resonance. Or maybe, if Ririka had insisted on returning during the Dark Hour, where she could call out Amphion to study the Resonance in more detail... maybe those two lives could have been spared.
Ririka cranked the music on her headphones louder to try and drown out the thoughts, but they kept coming. If they'd defeated the Shadow faster, could they have kept... Shinjo, or Kandori, or whatever his name was from taking it? The Lovers Shadow was supposed to be next, but would it even appear with while the Hierophant was still in captivity? Was there any hope of ending the Dark Hour now?
Her fingers drummed harder as she tried to focus her attention back to the schedule.And that fight against Kandori himself--the power of a God... it had been so overwhelming, and really the whole experience had been. Trying to support SEES, trying to keep track of all the innocent civilians enthralled by the Hierophant Shadow...
The drumming stopped as Ririka's hand slapped the top of her desk, gripping the edge tightly. She just... she had to do better next time. She needed more practice. Suzume wanted to explore Mementos, right? She'd already volunteered for that. Maybe... Ririka eyed the 'D' line on her calendar. If she volunteered for more patrols...
Ririka shook her head to herself. That had to come later. She still needed to fix her schedule for the week. She needed--
Suddenly the urge to /move/ became overpowering, and Ririka stood up from her desk to pace for a bit, still humming. No, pacing wasn't productive. It was time she could spend scheduling. Okay. She was up. What could she do? Ririka spotted her thermos on her desk and quickly snatched it up. Tea, that was it. Get some warm tea, soothe her nerves.
As she descended down the stairs, the world suddenly shifted. Ririka grasped the railing tightly, her breathing a little hard. She frowned as she looked at her hand and then her feet. Had she skipped a meal again? No, she had breakfast... she must've just missed a step, or something. That's it, she told herself. She was just in too much of a rush.
She made it to the kitchen without incident and filled up the kettle. She set it to boil, and then continued pacing. Her fingertips were drumming on her thigh as she walked.
Without warning, a strange fog began to blanket her mind. Her knees turned to rubber and Ririka went down to her knees. She barely caught herself on her hands. Before she could try to react to what had happened, stars flooded her field of view. Her arms buckled, but Ririka didn't feel her body hit the floor.
The kettle began to whistle, loud and angry and ignored.