2026-08-05: Normal
- Log: Normal
- Cast: Yukari Takeba, Ichika Kawase
- Where: Shibuya Station - Underground Mall
- OOC Date: August 05, 2026
- IC Date: December 15, 2012 (Backscened)
- Summary: On the day of the Christmas Village, Ichika catches Yukari after her shift at the maid cafe--and expresses her feelings about the things Yukari was expected to put up with. They talk a little more than that, and Yukari mentions a certain 'acquaintance'.
(|==================== Shibuya Station - Underground Mall ====================|)
-====================================================== Tokyo/Shibuya Ward ====-
If you think Shibuya Central Street has the ultimate in shopping, wait 'til you
see the Underground Mall off of Shibuya Station. A collection of all sorts of
stores, it's accessible down the stairs from both Shibuya Station and Central
Street, making it feel like an "as above, so below" situation.
There's only so much room in these subterranean walkways, so each store is more
like a hole in the wall, but each one makes the most of the space they've got.
Clothing and shoe stores use racks that spill into the walkway, the walls, even
the ceiling to display their wares. A flower shop has a chalkboard describing
prices for its potted plants and specialty bouquets. Jewelry stores show off
their wares beneath locked glass cases. A premium mini-supermarket offers the
most delectable sweets. Japanese sundries, cosmetics, music and DVDs--you can
find all of them and more here.
The hallway walls display massive, colorful ads for the next hit thing, and more
ads string overhead. It's almost jarring compared to the bland concrete
hallways, tiled floors, and corrugated steel shutters for stores not currently
open.
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
A platter came down heavily on the table, "Here's your order." She said, like she was dead inside, as the table rattled from the impact. "If you need anything else, don't ask me."
"Haha- now that's what I'm talking about!" Said one of the third year boys sitting here, "Every time I ask her out, she never disappoints."
"What are you, some kind of masochist?" Yukari said, uncomfortably and obviously frustrated, "Whatever... I'm outta here."
One of the girls in the class managing the Maid Cafe came up to Yukari as she moved out of the 'dining' area and told her, "Take a break."
"Huh? Is that really okay?" She said, as she rubbed at one of her eyes. "Yeah, we're not taking any new tables at this point. It's nearly closing time- and well-." The other girl responded.
"-we're grateful you made it such a success but... we get that it was a little much."
"... Yeah." She sighed, as she walked off.
The underground mall didn't have much space, so Yukari was sitting on a plastic crate just outside and to the side.
There weren't really any dressing rooms here to accommodate all of them, and she was pooped, so she's only taken off the frilly head band as she sits and just drinks a bottle of water.
"... I knew this was a bad idea."
It's not even that she doesn't like wearing a cute outfit like this. Just- some things only open you up to everyone being their worst selves and treating you like something inhuman.
It didn't really take much, did it?
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika Kawase has a couple of shopping bags now, having made her way around the festival and gone to many stands. She even spent some time at the maid cafe operated by the Gekkoukan second-years... which reminded her of her middle school days at Gekkoukan, too. For better and for worse.
But as she approaches to see to her sister--having split ways with Jun earlier--Ichika spots... Yukari, on a plastic crate.
Ichika's still in her outfit from before; fashionable, bold against the chill air. But they're inside so a short skirt isn't as daunting as it could be out in the winter... where girls wear them anyway, for the sake of--
Well, don't worry about it.
Anyway, Ichika approaches, arms down at her sides, looking over Yukari. "It's not your fault," the older girl says. "It's those creeps who get off on making you unomfortable. They're the ones at fault."
Ichika shakes her head, bleached-blonde hair and all, and comes to a stop near Yukari.
"...Sorry, I'm prying," she says. "But I wanted to say something anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
There you are, taking a drink, a sip to refresh you- still having enough sweat beading on your forehead to be uncomfortable.
When-
'It's not your fault,'
Suddenly she starts, coughing twice as it goes down the wrong pipe. "O-Oh hey." Steadying herself, she raises her apron and pats her mouth twice.
"Haha... wow, didn't expect this." She says with a sort of awkward chuckle, "You seeing me in this getup too."
There's another sigh, "I guess I know that, it's just- it feels like it's just... part of being a girl."
A beat.
"One of the parts I really don't like. Most of the people who sat down there- they're boys who've asked me out before."
There's a shake of her head.
"Normally I wouldn't care if they had hard feelings or something- but- today they sure got their revenge."
It really sucks to think about it. 'Revenge' is still the proper word choice. As if Yukari did something wrong by turning them down.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Cough cough. Ichika waits, and this might enhance her delinquent air,because she doesn't wince or anything--she just waits. It's awkward. But she's used to awkward.
"It's a cute outfit," Ichika says freely. "You look good in it. ...I don't know if I could pull it off half as well. Bottle blonde doesn't exactly suit a refined maid..."
But, "...Yeah. Guys get to do whatever they want, and we just have to deal with it," she agrees, because she understands that too. "Because it's just 'how guys are'. ...But it sucks."
Guys who asked her out before...
"Ugh. Sour grapes," she says. "I hate guys like that. Guys who can't take 'no' for an answer and accept it, have to make a whole thing about it." Ichika shakes her head. It sucks. "...Happens to me too, obviously."
"But you're not dressing up for them, right? They're the ones making it weird. I'm not gonna say you should go around punching guys like that or anything, but..."
Ichika folds her arms. "I guess I'm just saying I get it. It sucks. And I wish you hadn't had to deal with it."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"O-Oh, thanks." She flushes, tucking some hair behind an ear nervously, "It's a cute outfit. It's not like I even... don't like it." She admits, now that she's said that.
"I just don't like how boys- look at me like I'm theirs to order around."
She's not their housewife for a day, or anything! Not their servant! "Why can't they just be normal about it?"
Pause.
"... Yeah." She agrees on getting to do whatever they want. "... ... ... I guess they are being 'normal' after all."
After all, isn't why she likes Minato because he's not normal - and neither is she? A normal girl wouldn't have such hangups about this.
They'd be flattered by the attention, they'd probably have said 'yes' to some guy by now about dating because they're hoping to get married young.
"Haha... yeah. I guess they've made it into a stupid challenge like. 'Who's going to conquer me first?'"
She shakes her head from side to side, obviously upset by the idea of being 'conquered'. She's not some nation. Taking her virginity shouldn't be a 'win' condition!
"Oof... sorry to hear that." She says, of the fact they do it to her too. Because she can get it. "Must be rough at Kasugayama too, where the gender split isn't even fifty fifty..."
Is she dressing up for them? "Obviously not." She says with a grimace, "I got roped into it by losing some stupid wager with the girls in my class and owing them a favor. ... When it got cancelled the first time, I was really relieved."
Then it just happened again anyway!
"... Thanks." She finally says, "It's good to know at least someone gets it." She does look back towards the cafe, "I think the girls there- they do get it some but. They think I'm stuck up and are a little jealous of all the 'attention' I'm getting."
Pause.
"What's there to be jealous about?" She asks, with a new sigh.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"That's cool," Ichika says of the outfit. Of Yukari liking it (or 'not not liking it' as the case may be).
"Exactly," Ichika agrees. "They get all... owning-feeling," she doesn't know a better word, "And it really... sucks." Pause. "They are," Ichika says. "But they should be better than normal. 'Normal' isn't good enough!" She gets a little passionate about it, apparently. "The right kind of guy... Maybe he's got some things he's into, but he doesn't lose sight of who you are in the process."
Conquer. "Yes," Ichika agrees, and she wavers from the Tough Girl to actually use slightly more polite speech about this one. "Girls aren't prizes to take. We're people."
But, sorry. "It's..." Pause. "I guess I can't say it's cool, when I just said it's wrong when it happens to you. But I've been with a lot of guys, you know? But because I'm 'tough', some of them decide it's fine to get physical when I turn them down for something." She shakes her head. "Kasugayama... Well, the Death Boss mostly makes them keep their acts clean. Spike Boss looks out for girls, too, even after we broke up. So it's not as bad as you'd think. But it gets bad sometimes, yeah."
And obviously not. A wager... "Aaah, I see. Well, that'd do it."
But 'thanks'. "Just saying how I feel," Ichika demurs. "...But that sounds right. When you don't have it, guys' attention can seem like this intoxicating thing that's all good."
"...But when you have it, you know... sometimes your face doesn't even matter to them. Just what they can get out of you."
"...At least it's not all of them, right?" she tries to lighten up a moment later. "...Just enough that we have to deal with it all the time," she settles on, which is more of a downer. "Still."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Turns out it's actually 'like' it. When it's behind closed doors. And no guys can see her. The thing is she ordinarily doesn't mind how she comes across to guys with her fashion.
But maids are iconic for only 'one thing' coming to mind. The maid being submissive to their master.
"... Yeah." She agrees to owning-feeling, not being able to come up with a better one on the spot. "I guess but..." She looks up as if contemplating Ichika's passion and- "... what can we even do about it? It's just the way most guys are, you know?"
Most guys, at least she understands it's not something intrinsic to being a guy.
"And I like being a girl, but it's not like girls are necessarily better about it either."
It's not that she thinks they're equivalent, it's just she recognizes that girls generally- enable them? Compete against each other while being on the same side?
'I've been with a lot of guys, you know?'
"U-Uh." She blushes a little at the idea of that, "Kinda? It's not like I'm asking other girls what their 'body count' is or anything."
She hears the word but, she mostly only disapproves if a girl is- wholly dependent on a guy. Which... is how it's supposed to be.
But how it's supposed to be is not for her.
"Hm, no that makes sense. ... That it's not so bad." She says of the bosses and how they enforce things, "It's just- I mean we hear gossip about the latest relationship drama but Gekkoukan is pretty tame in comparison."
Fights are rare, there aren't huge disciplinary incidents often...
... it's weird, given that Tartarus is right there, during the Dark Hour.
'Well, that'd do it.'
"I sure didn't think they were going to ask me to do this." She shakes her head, "I thought it was gonna be more like- take over someone's committee duties for an event or something."
She sure got tricked.
'When you don't have it, guys' attention can seem like this intoxicating thing that's all good.'
"Hm. Yeah. For some girls at least." She considers the subject, some, "I guess I can't say for sure if I wouldn't be the same way if I wasn't considered 'a catch'. Just- I don't know. I'm not the kind of girl who would go out with a guy just because they made a decent first impression."
In other words, boys she doesn't know asking her out? That's doomed from the start, even if they did a good job.
"I want to feel like, a real connection, I guess?"
Perhaps her standards are too high, but, she doesn't want to really compromise them. "Yeah. Haha..." She laughs, then lets out a small sigh, "It's not all of them. Just, most of them."
She leans back, then, "Honestly I'm surprised you get the same kind of attention. I hear guys all the time saying they'd never date a girl taller than them."
Obviously she doesn't feel the same way, but- it's something she hears them say. "I don't think I've ever seen a couple at our school where the girl is taller?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ultimately, that's why Ichika isn't sure about maids; she likes submitting well enough... on her terms. And she is not convinced that being a maid would give her th eopportunity to set the terms, even in lighthearted approaches.
But Yukari gets it. What can they do, though? "...Endure, I guess," Ichika says, deflating slightly. "It's just how it is. But we can focus on the good ones, right? We don't need the others."
"I like being a girl too," Ichika says. "...But yeah, girls are the ones who've given me the most trouble for being how I am. Boys just..." Well, they want a 'taste', and she knows how to deal with them.
When Yukari blushes, Ichika looks apologetic. "I didn't mean to... I just mean, I've known a lot of guys, and been on a lot of dates," she settles on. "The other thing's true, but... it's not important."
Gossip about relationship drama, but tamer. "Yeah. At Kasugayama, the teachers mostly don't care... so the drama gets a lot... uhh, louder?" Yeah, that's the word.
"Yeah, nobody expects to be asked something like this--or it to go this way."
But for some girls. "Mm, we can all say we'd be different if we were different," Ichika thinks. "I would, but..."
"I guess that's how I start feeling it? If he gives me a reason to be interested--then maybe we can 'make' that connection. ...But I don't think there's anything wrong with your way, either. Being friends first... It'd make a lot of things a lot easier."
Most of them, though. "Heh. Yeah."
"Well," Ichika says, "Maybe it's because there's more tall guys at Kasu. Something about being tall makes you more likely to get into trouble." She is probably kidding. ...Probably. "But nah, you're right. Most guys don't want to date a girl taller than them. They just want to sleep with her now and then."
Ichika shrugs. "I'm not into that as much lately. I mean--sorry, if that's too much--but I'd rather have a real 'connection', too. 'That'," she euphemizes, "Is nice... but it's not enough for me on its own."
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
Yukari mostly likes the cute outfits.
Submission she hasn't even begun to have a relationship with sexually, so she's not even gonna think about that one.
"We do plenty of that already." She says to the 'Endure' part. "But, it sure wears on a girl." Again she looks back to the maid cafe, "Some days more than others... but, you're right. Good guys- well they get a chance. The others-..."
There's a long sigh on that one, "... I'd like to say they can just be mad about it, but likely they're still gonna marry someone with lower standards of behavior."
Yukari isn't gonna say she's not like the other girls or anything, but she does understand she definitely has a higher standard than most.
In part because... she grew up in a bad situation. If her Dad were still alive... who knows? Maybe she'd be just like those other girls.
"Haha... ha... yeah it's okay. I just-"
She pauses.
"-let's just say I knew someone who... would date anyone who'll give her the time of day, no matter how scummy they were, no matter how badly they treated her. It was... real pathetic."
She can't say it was her Mom. That's too far to share for her.
"So, whenever I hear about being with a lot of guys, I can't help but think of that."
It might recontextualize some of their earlier interactions, some, her saying that.
'The teachers mostly don't care...'
"Ah, yeah, that'd do it. Kirijo-senpai would just fire them all if they were like that at Gekkoukan..."
She has no doubt she would too, instantly, with no hesitation and extreme prejudice.
"Hmm. Yeah. I guess I'm more open to that than I used to be. I think, before this year... no one would ever stand the slightest chance."
That's an interesting thing for her to say, what happened to her this year that made her more open to it?
"Friends first... is weird to me. I've always heard that guys and girls can't just- be friends. But... I guess it can happen sometimes?"
She'd say she's Minato's friend at least, it's just- she's looking for something different... than just friendship, so can one even say he's an example otherwise?
"Mmm, that sounds right." She agrees on taller guys there, "I guess bigger guys have a higher chance of going to reform school just on... that basis alone."
Pause.
"Wha..." Her face screws up in revulsion as it hits her, "Ew... gross. As some kind of fetish or something? Eugh..." She leans back on her crate, "Kinda like maids. Heh. You couldn't pay me enough to work at one of those cafes."
Ichika apologizes, "Uh- Nah it's not... too much. Like- it's not like I'm a prude or something when the girls at my school talk about it. Just..."
She shrugs. "... I dunno. Maybe it's just my mind goes back to... someone I knew once."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
They are cute.
"Yeah, it does," Ichika agrees about wearing. "...That's true," Ichika agrees too about some girls just lowering their standards to get someone. Which she wouldn't want to do, but... she definitely understands the impulse.
But Yukari knew someone... "Ohh," Ichika answers. "...Yes. I see what you mean." Ichika shakes her head. "Sorry, then. The things I said to you when we first met... You must've thought a lot of things about me. It's sad, when people get like that. ...Because 'someone else' can't fill that hole inside you, not really."
Kirijo-senpai. Ichika laughs. "I went to middle school with her, you know. We weren't in the same class or anything, but I remember what she was like. ...I can see it."
No one would? That is pretty interesting. Because now... "That's cool," Ichika says. "I hope you find a good guy, then. Somebody who picks you for you."
But friends... "Mm, yeah. It's hard... But it can happen. Like, for real. They don't even have to be gay or something."
Where would that come up? Don't worry about it.
"Right. The bigger and stronger you are, the more likely you're gonna use it. So... trouble."
Revulsion. Ichika isn't sure how she feels about it--but she's pretty sure she appreciates it. "Kinda," she says. "I guess you don't call it a fetish if it's 'normal'. It means they think I'm hot, but they don't respect me. ...I don't go for guys who don't respect me anymore. It's not worth it." Pause. "And me, either."
But it's not too much? "Okay," Ichika says. "I'm glad." That they can talk about it. But that someone... "Mm, yeah. With an example like that... I'd get shying away for sure. It's not like there's anything wrong with waiting for 'someone special', either." She did; it just... didn't work out so well for her.
"...Anyway, I'm glad you don't think you deserve stuff like that, or something. I see the line's drying up, so I should probably let you go get changed, see if I can catch my sister."
"But I was worried, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
"Ehhh it's..." She leans forward, clasping her hands over the bottle of half-drank water, "... not really your fault. I uh- I misunderstood, one part of it. It took me back to..."
She's quiet for more than a few seconds.
"... something that happened." She finally explains, "It just, it made me think you didn't have much self-respect..."
Eventually, she sighs and-
"The whole on your knees part. A guy once had- her do that, to apologize for something stupid he was going to leave her over. And she did it, full Dogeza, begged him to take her back. I wasn't thinking about..."
A gesture.
"... you know."
To young Yukari Takeba, it made her hate her mother. Hated her so much, that she would just disgrace the memory of her Father by begging a guy who was the scum of the earth to take her back.
"Haha... if you did then, I bet you could."
'They don't even have to be gay or something.'
"Uh- whoa, didn't know that was a thing. I was always told gay men uh- usually hate women."
Yukari Takeba has apparently not been exposed to the 'gay best friend' trope. RIP.
"Doesn't sound normal." She says of the 'not called a fetish'. "Definitely sounds like people just wanting to sleep with you because they have some... weird fixation."
Then...
"Yeah. I kept telling her- at least wait for someone who treats you right, but, she never listened."
Good perfect, it keeps sounding like a friend from school, she'd be mortified if someone figured out it was her Mom.
"Haha... well, thanks for stopping by to talk with me, I feel better." She holds up her water bottle, "And since your Sis didn't have even close to as bad a time as me- you have my permission to tease her over the outfit."
A beat.
"Though it's not like you need it- being you're sisters."