2026-09-20: The Ramen Boy and the Night Princess
- Log: The Ramen Boy and the Night Princess
- Cast: Kazusa Motojima, Ryuji Sakamoto
- Where: Electric Town - Main
- OOC Date: September 20, 2026
- IC Date: Saturday, January 12, 2013
- Summary: Ryuji's food vlogs need... a little bit of help, to put it kindly. Kazusa offered Ryuji the phone number of a video editor, and now Ryuki has arranged to meet the mysterious 'NightPrincess' in person. Who could this mystery editor be?
(|=========================== Electric Town - Main ===========================|)
-========================================================= Tokyo/Akihabara ====-
A sacred place for otaku, not just within Japan but worldwide. Here, it's so
mainstream to be a geek that it circles back to being cool again. That is,
unless you harass the staff of the businesses here whose job requires them to be
a part of this culture, or the cosplayers who work so hard at their costumes
that it's practically a second job for them.
Arcades and gaming shops alternate with manga stores full of merch that's so
pricy as to make any broke fan envious. Collectors line the streets for the
chance to trade for the rarest gachapon finds. Maid cafes and popups with menus
designed to profit off the latest hits in the weekly manga collabs and/or old
favorites from two decades ago cater equally to tourists and locals alike.
Anywhere on earth may be a heaven or hell depending on who you are, but that may
be truer than most places for Akihabara.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Some time ago, Kazusa happened upon Ryuji in Akiba and tried to apologize for how she reacted to him over summer break.
'Tried', since, her apology was immediately derailed by Ryuji responding that he was already seeing someone, causing Kazusa to snap and make the apology while flustered.
... It's probably fine.
She'd also let on that she knew about his food review videos, and casually commented that he could use an editor, and had even offered the phone number of someone she knew that was up to the task.
The fact that it was her phone number can just be a fun little surprise that comes out later.
But now they've finally made arrangements to meet, appropriately enough, at a ramen shop in Akiba. And Kazusa... is here in disguise. Partly so she doesn't scare off Ryuji immediately, and partly because she has a serial killer out to get her and would rather obfuscate her trail as much as possible.
But the person Ryuji only knows as 'NightPrincess' did tell Ryuji how to identify her, though, and in a corner table in the back there she is: a girl about his age in a black beret, with dark green hair ( a wig), and glasses, wearing a long, dark green coat, a wrm cream-colored sweater over a longer dark brown dress, black tights, and ankle boots.
She's glancing anxiously out the window as she waits. There's a laptop bag on the seat next to her.
The shop itself is nice, though seems a bit quiet for this time of day--which might be why Kazusa picked it.
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
Ryuji is eager to meet his new editor. In truth, video production had slowed somewhat due to a combination of things. Work was a big one. He had been slacking even in some of his stuff with the other side. So an editor was going to help a lot.
Ryuji arrives to the Ramen place; he had insisted on this shop due to it being within walking distance from the model shop. He was dressed in a white shirt and some baggy pants--basically what he wore under the apron at work. It also worked for when he had to change at the cafe.
Along with his messenger bag and water bottle, he scans the area for "Night Princess". He spots the green haired girl in the corner and smiles to himself. He had almost expected it was going to be Kazusa knowing his luck. But that's insane. Why would his life be that crazy?
That said he needed the help so it was time to meet this mystery editor.
Ryuji sits down, squinting at her face. Huh. She looked familiar but he didn't know anyone with green hair. "Hey! I'm Ryuji aka Ramenboy83. Thanks for meeting me here. I had to come straight from work. So you wait here long?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa, meanwhile, does not have a job to worry about--though she has plenty else to worry about, as it happens. But she does have a lot of computer experience and experience with artistic tools (even if video editing in particular is something she's still learning.)
Surely, if it was going to be Kazusa that Ryuji was meeting, Kazusa would have just said so, right? Right??
Is she familiar? If one were to look past the glasse sthey might take note of the mystery girl's purple eyes...
'NightPrincess' sits up as she spots Ryuji, trying to keep a calm demeanor. "Hello," she says carefully. "It's nice to meet you. I'm NightPrincess." No first name given. That's probably fine. She shakes her head. "No, I haven't been waiting too long."
She puts a hand on her laptop bag. "... do you want to start with business or with lunch?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
Exactly. Ryuji was safe from the mean girl. For now.
He notes the glasses, thinking about the people who he knows with glasses. Only Futaba came to mind and this one wasn't...Futaba. Also she didn't have green hair.
Noting she wants to remain anonymous, Ryuji nods and thinks for a second. "I'll call you NP. Probably better than saying the whole thing all the time. Might be embarrassing. You can call me Ryuji since we're gonna be working together." He grins to himself nodding. "Oh, lets do lunch first! It will help us get to know each other and plus I'm starving, man!"
He looks at the menu and strokes his chin. "Man this place has added some new stuff. Hopefully they didn't change the menu too much. They had a good flavor last time I was here."
He looks over the menu. "So you know Kazusa, eh? She's....interesting."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Neither NightPrincess nor Kazusa has ever met this Futaba. That Kazusa knows of, at least.
Though if Ryuji knows his glasses... maybe he can spot that these aren't prescription. Just ordinary blue light glasses one might wear to protect themself roma computer monitor.
"NP..." NightPrinces considers that for a moment and then nods. "If you want." But then Ryuji freely offers the use of his first name and NP can't help but smirk a little. "You'd go that familiar that quickly, huh...? I'll call you RB."
She looks at a menu herself. "... given the subject of your videos, I thought it would be appropriate." She does pause as Ryuji mentions Kazusa. "... you could say that. What do you know about her?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
Ryuji doesn't know a thing about prescription glasses...even if he rocks a pair of costume glasses in some videos. They made him look and feel smarter so that about about what he knew of glasses.
He laughs when she mentions going that familiar, shrugging his shoulders. "Eh, I guess you're doing me a solid so I'm feeling pretty open about this. Like you're gonna see a lot of me so I figure why not? RB is fine too. Whatever is comfortable for ya...Just so we're clear it's got nothing to do with you being a girl. I get kinda weird due to one of my jobs and not wanting to give my girlfriend the wrong idea." He scratches the side of his nose as he looks down at the menu. He orders a bowl of the Ramen with Pork Belly, getting some extra pork belly on the side.
"It is very appropriate! I really just started it since I love coming to these places so I got a lot of experience with different types of Ramen." Ryuji leans against the table, nodding like he's reinventing sliced bread.
"Kazusa is kinda the mean girl in my class who I have a habit of running into. Honestly, it's kinda weird I keep running into her. That said she's alright. I think she means well or is starting to...Still I got a bad rep around school so she could make that more of a pain. Like I could care less about all that popularity stuff but it gets too loud and I start hearing from people who want to take down the delinquent."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
NightPrincess definitely doesn't know anythinga bout costumes. Nosiree. But it's fine. The truth will come out at some point.
"We haven't agreed to work together," NP points out. "... this is to see if we'd be a good fit." There's a flash of irritation as Ryuji brings up the girlfriend, again, and NightPrincess has to visibly take a deep breath to try and calm herself. "... don't worry. This is strictly a business arrangement."
"... but what job is that?" NightPrincess asks, feigning ignorance.
Sliced bread is perfetly fine how it is, but NightPrincess laughs softly. "They say to write what you know, right? Or I suppose it's vlog what you know, in this case."
NightPrincess orders the curry ramen for herself, but doesn't get anything extra on the side.
Well, she can't exactly argue with that characterization of Kazusa. "Mmm. Must be hard escaping from a reputation like that." She doesn't specify whether she means Ryuji's or Kazusa's. "... so, what are your goals for your channel?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
"Cool. Cool. Just wanted that to be clear since I was getting chummy." Ryuji smiles and nods. "Don't worry I can be a pretty persuasive guy when I want to be. You're gonna love the Let's Eat series."
The next question stops Ryuji dead. He sighs and laughs nervously. "Eh. It's kinda embarassing but I guess you can call it a service job in Akiba. I'm sure you can figure it out based on that." He laughs nervously, thanking whatever higher power that this girl didn't look like anyone he knew at school.
"Exactly! I know Ramen and food in general. Like only thing I know more about is fitness and that has it's own complications." He laughs awkwardly.
"Yeah. It is." Ryuji nods, deciding she means him cuz it was pretty hard being the school bad boy at times. Kazusa just had to hide being into fighting games or whatever, right? He taps his fingers on the table, thinking for a moment as the monkey in his brain considers the next question. "Goals? I guess to hit something like 1,000 subscribers or something. Is that high enough?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Don't worry, Ryuji. NightPrincess is definitely not interested in you that way, even if she can't fully explain it to herself yet.
But as for persuasive. "... I'm sure you can be," she says, neutrally. "But I am familiar with your current videos," she notes.
"Oh, I see... well, if it's embarrassing you don't have to talk about it," NightPrincess offers, even though she totally knows what it is.
Fitness... "Oh, does it?" She, of course, knows all the gossip about w3hat happenesd. How could she fail to know the gossip about what happened. She'd spread some of it.
As it happens, she has her own complicated feelings about fitness.
"...Still, food is something a lot of people like..."
'Or whatever', yes. There was also that rumor about about her being caught out in cosplay over the summer, too... and not to mention all the new rumors that have come up around Shinichi's Homunculus.
Is that too high? NightPrincess shrugs a little. "Probably not. If you'd said something like a million, that would probably be too much... but 1000 could be doable. What are your current challenges with video production, at the moment?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
"Thanks. Yeah. Its definitely not the kind of thing I want being common knowledge." Ryuji nods, completely oblivious about a number of things here.
"Yeah...I got injured due to a...fight and now I can't run at my peak levels. I used to be pretty good." He actually feels a little sad that that part of his life might be over. For now, he mentally shoves those feelings away.
"Exactly! Plus you can get a lot of unique stuff at smaller shops like this. Some people might not know about it. Like there's the place in Sumaru with the Banana Ramen. That might be a common story now but its something that at one point was pretty unique."
Ryuji has mostly strong armed himself through the Shinichi Homunculus stuff...still feeling weird around those things during school hours. It was like sitting in the cage with a tiger or something. Still, he is going to have to deal with that sooner or later.
"Heh. I'd love to get to a million someday if possible...But I'd say the biggest challenge is the editing. I tend to work too quick so I make mistakes that make my work come off sloppy? Kinda might also need someone to help me organize it more. Maybe access to some music and effects. I love the star wipe but I've been told there are other wipes too."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa saw Ryuji at his 'embarrassing' job. She has her own 'embarrassing' hobbies. She can at least show enough grace not to needle him further.
She was even supportive then, too! In her own way. She's trying.
But she's at a loss for words when she hears Ryuji talk about the fight. It takes her a moment to muster a "... I'm sorry to hear that."
"Tokyo and Sumaru are very dense cities. There can be lots of smaller shops that are only known to locals..." NightPrincess observes, feeling more on solid ground. "... I've heard about that. Is it any good? It doens't seem like it should work..."
Kazusa is trying to tough it out but it's been taking a toll on her. She hasn't stopped taking the occassional glance out the window, for instance.
Oh thank goodness. He's heard about other wipes already. "Let's start with 1000, for now." She nods. "I've noticed that. ... No offense." A small nod. "We can examine your workflow... and there are options for royalty-free or low-cost music, too." A small smile, at the end. "... there are, but... if you use them sparingly, the star wipe could be... part of a signature style? Like..."
NightPrincess reaches into her bag to pull out a sketchbook and does a very rough sketch. Several different squares in a row, with arrows facing left to right. In the first one is the words 'Let's Eat' and the last one 'Credits' with a bunch of squiggly lines underneath. "Maybe... a star wipe into the video--" There's a star drawn over the arrow from the title screen into the start of the video, followed by another one over the arrow between the last two. ".. and one out into the credits? Like you're wiping into and out of the video?"
She turns the sketchbook around so Ryuji can see.
"... what's your current process like? What kind of camera and software are you using?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
"Exactly! Plus with the bigger shops popping up, it can be hard to find the really good stuff." Ryuji nods before offering. "It's pretty damn good. Like a little weird when you first try it but it grows on you."
"Cool. 1000, it is...Heh. I guess I go a little heavy on it but it does look pretty cool." It really doesn't but Ryuji is not an editor. He was just piling things on because he thought that is what you did. "Examine my work flow...Uhh I pretty much just go off the top of my head and film my experience. Do I need to do more than that?" He tilts his head in confusion.
The confusion grows when he is asked about his equipment, pulling out his phone. "I uh record off of my phone? I got a pretty good program with my computer so thats what I'm using mostly. Like I realize it's a very bare bones set up but it's worked so far." He stops as he feels like he's digging a hole that might cost him this deal. He holds up a hand. "But! I can probably afford to get some new equipment with this job!"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"Mmm... Bigger shops... that's true. Highlighting smaller shops could be a good niche, if you need one..." That might be the corporate family in Kazusa peeking through a little. It's fine. "I'll remember that," she says of the Banana Ramen.
Pretty cool. "Mmm, maybe..." It doesn't, but Kazusa is trying really hard not to just... well, be her normal self.
She pauses when Ryuji says he goes off the top of his head. "I-- Well, that's... still a process, I suppose," she allows. "... we may need... some kind of process if we're going to work together. I can't exactly take your phone every time you need to make a new video..."
Oh no. This might be more work than she initially thought. But on the other hand, she can't exactly say she's surprised.
A program with his computer. That about lines up with what she expected. "... it's fine. That's something we can work out. I won't ask you to spend more money on equipment, but if you think you can afford it I won't exactly argue..." she tries to say this with a good-natured laugh, but it's a little strained.
She's starting to realize just what she's getting into, but she's determined to preservere.
"... did you bring the files for one of your old videos like I asked you to?" NightPrincess starts to pull a laptop from her bag, opening it up. It's pretty high-end, actually. "... it'll help me get a better idea of what I'll be working with."
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
"Yeah. That does work." Ryuji says of his 'niche'. Plus the smaller shops tended to let him film because they were often too old to know any better.
"Yeah. I can develop some kind of process. How hard could that be?" He says, not completely understanding what he's getting into. It could be done if he used the internet to figure out some film theory or processes.
He notes the laugh, scratching the back of his head as he laughs sheepishly. "Yeah...I'll look into what works. I mean I can get a good set up since I'm pretty serious about making this into something. Let me know if you have any suggestions." He asks, not knowing that NightPrincess is loaded so probably has a very different view on equipment prices than he does.
Ryuji reaches into his bag and produces a thumb drive with both raw footage and some edited clips on it. "I guess you can see the footage from recorded and after I take out the bits I like. I'm just bad a clipping stuff as you can see."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
That would certainly be a plus, though Kazusa hadn't been thinking of it from that angle.
"Don't... worry about it. We'll figure something out. I don't exactly have a process yet either." She might understand the basics of video editing, but this isn't exactly a regular activity for her, either... not that she'll admit it outright.
Someone has to look like they know what they're doing, after all.
If she has any suggestion. She has a lot of suggestions. "Let's circle back to that later," she says instead. "I'll do some research, first, before I recommend anything."
She takes the thumb drive and plugs it in, then loads up Debut. She opens the file explorer and starts sifting through the clips as she loads them up. "Mmm... hmmm mm-hmm. Don't worry about it. This program lets me select things very precisely."
She's practiced a little bit, but it's still unfamiliar and a little slow going at the moment. Under her breath she's muttering, "So this should... and I think... and if I adjust... adjust the gain... deltet this... run a filter..."
She fishes out a pair of headphones to listen to something, then turns the laptop towards Ryuji and offers him the headphones. "Okay, this is a really quick job, but... would you like to take a look?"
By basic she means basic. There's no fancy effects yet, and the b-roll doesn't have any sound. But she's actually managed to erase the b-roll's background noise, and she's cut the other clips cleanly to avoid any embarrassing mishaps with mirrors and dancing.
"All you have to do is hit space."
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
Ryuji nods when she says she'll research some options. It was stuff like that that made him trust her input, cupping his chin in thought.
He watches the process eagerly, finding it to be much quicker than HE works. So while Kazusa was struggling, Ryuji was watching her work with amazement. Just a difference in perspective.
He takes the headphones and holds one of the speakers up to his ear, without putting them completely on. He presses space and is completely silent as he watches the footage. "Ooo. This is incredible! It almost looks like a pro did it! It's so much cleaner than I can make it too." He holds out the headphones to her, grinning. "So do I gotta beg you to continue to work on this. Cuz I might need to at this point."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Hold onto that thought about trust, Ryuji. You might need to rethink that assessment in a moment.
If this were a drawing Kazusa would be truly in her element. but working with an audience, with slightly unfamiliar software, was a lot more nerve-wracking than she wanted to let on.
And there is a quiet, pensive tension as she turns the laptop and headphones over. "Well, it is Professional software... it has the right tools for this kind of work."
She takes the headphones and the laptop back, shaking her head. "You don't have to beg, but... there's something you should know." And she looks a little pensive again as she pulls the beret off, along with the glasses. The wig stays on, but maybe without the other things breaking up her face, who she is might start to become a little clearer. (The wig took a fair bit of effort, she's not removing it on a whim.)
Kazusa clears her throat, and lets her voice take on its usual sharper edge, though it's a bit more subdued still. "... we've met before. And before you agree to work with me, well..."
She's trying to remain cool and aloof, but there's a quiet tension in her posture. She's about to say it, but she's giving Ryuji enough time to maybe figure it out.
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
Ryuji nods, looking at the computer again. "I mean yeah but like---you use those professional tools so well. I bet if I tried it would look pretty shitty." He offers as he watches her.
"Hmm?" He watches as she takes things off. It doesn't become clear right away but he does get it in a moment. The blonde eyes widen as he looks at Kazusa in horror. "Oh come on! This has to be a joke at this point!"
After a moment, he scratches his head and looks up at her again. He wants to say a lot but he can't find the words before just sighing. "Alright. Shock is over. I really need the help to make this something so...could you please help me, Motojima? NP? Whatever you want me to call you for this...In exchange, I can uhhhh....well what would you want? " He is kinda hoping she doesn't ask him to deal with that Shinichi guy. Like as creepy as a Homunculus is, he sorta did feel bad for the guy so beating him up was kinda out of the question. Plus it wasn't like she knew about his identity as Skull. Heh, with all these secret identities, Ryuji was pretty good at keeping secrets in his opinion. He didn't understand why the Phantoms gave him so much shit.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"... I had to learn how to use it, like anybody else." Okay so she's familiar with the suite of programs already, it's fine.
Kazusa sighs. "It's... not a joke. Annnd I'm sorry for the disguise. I wasn't trying to fool you, exactly, just... show you that I meant business." By deciving him. That tracks.
"... how do you think I happened to have an editor's phone number ready so fast?"
"You can call me Motojima or NP," Kazusa says with a small shrug. "I'll help. That's kind of the point of all of this, after all." She's not going to ask Ryuji to help fight the Homunculus. She tried to keep him from helping during that confrontation in the hallway, after all, to keep him from getting hurt by the supernatural.
Another shrug. "Honestly? I don't really want anything much. I just have some very simple terms. First, you don't tell anybody about this. You breathe a word of this at school and I'll deny it. Second, I want to be credited in the videos as NightPrincess. Maybe with a website link if I set one up. And third, I don't get on camera. I'll edit, I'll help with planning and maybe even filming, but I'm strictly behind the camera and behind the scenes."
<Pose Tracker> Ryuji Sakamoto has posed.
Ryuji grumbles as she explains herself. He feels kinda dumb for not catching that Nightprincess was her. Then again, he has had his mind on other things so maybe it was understandable he missed this. Yeah. That is how he is recovering from this.
He listens to her agreement and conditions, nodding. "Fine. It's not like I want the trouble either so you got a deal. I'll work on getting better at capturing everything and you work your magic. Easy enough."
"That said, just come to me next time? I'm gonna start wondering if you're gonna crawl out from under my bed or somethin'." He smiles some but sees that posture and look, prompting him to smile less.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
It's not like Kazusa went all-out either, but... she was kind of concerned Ryuki would just turn right around if he spotted her sitting in the booth.
"Deal. I'll keep this under wraps, too." She nods. "We can work on the filming side of things together. I meant what I said about researching new camera options--but only if you really want to."
"Hmph." Kazusa squares her shoulders as she sits upright. "Just because we're working together on your videos doesn't mean I need to go crawling around under your bed, Sakamoto-san. Don't be absurd." Oh, that sounds more like her. But after a moment she nods. "... but I'll remember that. No more disguises."